Saved

It was an abnormally cold night one Wednesday in the winter of 2013. My family and I were on our way to our church for AWANA. The trip was the same as it had always been until we were but a mile away from our destination. Several months before, our town had opened a new road and needed an intersection to control the traffic. Instead of choosing stoplights like they had always done, the town council chose a traffic circle. They thought it would be convenient. That night though, it was anything but a convenience. As was my usual, I was looking out my window of our family’s minivan the entire ride. I loved looking at the dark sky and seeing the occasional star in the countryside. We entered the roundabout appropriately, yielding to any cars that were already in it. We were going around the loop when I felt a sudden jerk of the steering wheel towards the center of the median. My mother screamed sharply when everyone else turned to look out her window to see what was happening. Another car was quickly barreling towards us as it neglected to yield. My dad instinctively whipped around the steering wheel away from the car towards the median, so the impact would not be as devastating. The next moments that followed are all a blur. I know my dad’s maneuvers were not enough to save our minivan from the fast moving car and there was a crash. I remember my head being whipped to the left side of my car seat as the car hit us. I vaguely remember looking around my minivan. It was empty. No one was in it. I remember that the right side of the minivan was hit and I was scared to get out of that side. There were people shouting, police sirens, and flashing lights, all while the traffic circle was still in use. I did not know what to do. I was scared and I could not find anyone. The then five year old me, climbed out of the wreckage and started looking for anyone familiar. It was to no avail. I started wandering around the traffic circle, trying to find my family in the middle of all the chaos. Cars were still zooming through the roundabout past me as I was calling for my mom. She never came. She did not hear me. She did not know where I was. I started giving up hope and just stood still in the middle of all the action, crying. In all honesty, I should have died that night. The first responders were on the other side of the van and did not know I was missing either. Suddenly, this lady comes from the dark commotion, grabs my hand, and starts leading me to my family. I remember what she said as she tried to comfort me, “Hi, I’m Caitlin, what is your name?” I wiped away my tears and answered, “My name is Katelyn too! But is your name spelled with a C or a K?” She laughed a bit, quickly replied C, dropped me off by family, and vanished. I was upset because I did not get to say thank you. A different stranger picked us up, and took us a mile to our church. I do not remember much else that happened that night. Later, I found out that if my dad had not turned the wheel at that last second, both my mother and my baby sister would have been killed. If Miss Caitlin had not intervened when she did, I would have been killed too. When I think about this accident, I have concluded that there are three reasons why half my family was not killed that night. 1. My dad’s defensive driving, 2. Stand-byer action, and 3. God’s intervention. Anytime I go through that traffic circle, I make sure that I fully yield because the person who almost killed three people did not know how to properly use a traffic circle and did not believe he had to yield to us. That accident taught me that even if you think you are right, you should always compensate for other’s choices and be a defensive driver and that if you see something, you shouldn’t just say something, you should do something like Miss Caitlin did for me. Years later, my mother was telling that story at a local Bible study. Everyone in the room was crying by the end of it because of how God miraculously spared three lives that night. After she finished, one of our friends approached my mom in tears. “I was that woman,” she said. “I saved your Katelyn that night”.