About 7pm, Thursday. We are coming back from an orphanage in Tikhvin (about 3 hours away from St.Pete). There are 15 of us in the big white van. We are exhausted but happy- our day with the orphanage kids was awesome. Skits; games; loads of fellowship; fireworks. We are freezing cold- the heater in the van isn't working. Finally, most of us fall asleep- who cares about cold when you're that tired. I am sitting next to my sister, Masha, who is the brain behind this whole trip. She is already asleep on my shoulder and I follow her example...
... Brakes. Screeching of the tires. A head on collision...
Everybody is on the floor. Natasha, a girl who was sitting on the last row, ended up on top of Masha. First thought: "We had two kids with us! Are they alive?". I help Mark, a 9 year old boy to get out of the van. He is crying and calling his dad- Tagir. Dang it! He was on the front seat! We open the door. Tagir is alive. His whole face is covered in blood. I see our driver getting out of the van. He looks very much like Tagir. We make sure that everyone is alive and I get my cell phone out to call Heather.
I have never been in such state of shock before: I limp along the van trying to figure out what to do next. It feels like I have ten thousand thoughts fighting against each other in my head. I sit down on the side of the road. Somebody is putting snow on my leg. I close my eyes: It hurts like a mother! I hear Masha screaming: "Does anybody know where we are?!". Turns out she is talking to 911 people. Good girl.
I simply don't know what else to do. My whole body is shivering . It's about -15 Celsius outside, but I am not sure if that's the reason.
Cars are stopping to give us shelter. I look at the scene and realize that were also hit from behind. Lady in the car behind us yelling at us for no apparent reason. I want to punch her. Police arrives 5 minutes after everything happened, but there is still no sign of an ambulance. I walk over to the car that we collided with. Nissan Koshkai. It's totaled. Policeman told me it's a woman. Darn. I know what my dad is gonna say. Apparently she just lost control and swerved in our lane. Full speed. She is fine. As much as you can be after such collision.
20 minutes. Still no ambulance. Me and Gera decide to stop cars in order to send people to hospitals. BMW X5 takes first two girls. Everyone that stopped agreed to take people. Many didn't stop though.
My phone is ringing non-stop. I try to "talk normal, but do a lousy job. My family is certain that I have a broken leg. Shouldn't they comfort me with a slightly more positive message?!
40 minutes. I feel a lot better. My leg hurts, but it's definitely not broken. Most of our friends are on their way to St.Pete, Masha hugs me and I realize that I could have lost her. Emotional.
About an hour. It's just Masha, Gera, me and our bus driver with his daughter that are still at the scene. (A side note: Doctor Martens shoes- is a poor choice of clothing for a car accident in the middle of russian winter). All of a sudden there are no more cars. I ask the policeman to help us and he stops one of the cars that passes by. Our van driver asks to take his 7 year old daughter with us. Turns out they live practically next to our dacha, so we take her. The driver is really nice but really wants to make sure that we got all the snow off our shoes before getting into his car. That seems a little odd giving the circumstances.
My dad is driving to meet us somewhere in between. My leg is defrosting and hurts. Masha puts her hand on my shoulder. I am almost happy.
An hour and thirty minutes. Four ambulances fly by us with their lights on. Thanks.
P.S. Two of our friends suffered concussions. One girl has a broken collar-bone. Some stitches; lots of bruises and bumps- that's all. Is God good or what?
