I was very scared at this point because if she wasn't paying attention, how many others would not be paying attention? As the traffic had now stopped to gawk at us, the Corvette was able to move to the left, past the HOV lane, into the emergency lane, and I was able to move there too. I saw the guy in the Vette get out and look at the back of his vehicle. He began walking towards me, so I slowly rolled down the window (in case he was a wack job and wanted to kill me for wrecking his Vette), and I told him I was very sorry but someone had hit me and caused me to crash into him. He was very nice and said he saw the whole thing happen, so he knew it was not my fault. He said that amazingly enough, there was not a scratch on his Vette. That's when the Escape pulled up behind us in the emergency lane. The girl inside couldn't have been much older than 21 and was crying hysterically, apologizing all over the place. She said she was on her way to Florida Atlantic University to take an exam. Just at that moment, I looked out into the middle lane of the highway, at what had probably caused the accident in the first place. There was an abandoned Chevy with a flat tire in the middle lane. I was wondering how that car had been involved, and was told later at the hospital that some guy had abandoned his car because it had a flat tire. I'm not sure why the guy left his car there, but his stupidity caused the entire accident. At any rate, the next thing that happened was a guy on a motorcycle (crotch rocket) apparently did not see the abandoned car and crashed into it, flipping over the top of the car and rolling over the hood, landing on the highway in front of the car. The guy got up and pulled his motorcycle from behind the car. He was going to ride off, but a cop who had come onto the scene made him pull over into the emergency lane as well. By this time, I had started to look for my license and my registration per the order of the policeman. I then realized I could not stand anymore because my back and leg were hurting pretty bad, so I sat in my car. The paramedics came and assessed me. We all decided that it would probably be best to take me to the hospital to get checked out. The nice paramedics put a neck brace on me, put me on a board, and drove me to the hospital. I got x-rayed and was very lucky to have only cervical and lumbar strain. The state trooper involved came to visit me in the hospital to give me a report and to return my license. He told me that everyone involved was very lucky to be alive, because this type of accident on the interstate more often ends up with serious injuries or even death. The lesson for everyone to learn from this, is that if your vehicle becomes disabled for any reason while you're driving on the interstate, move your car off to the side immediately (that should go without saying, right?). If you notice that your car is slowing because of mechanical difficulties, you should have enough momentum to get to the side. If you get a flat like this guy did, just ride on the wheel to the side. A wrecked wheel is better than the alternative. The second lesson is never take your eyes off the road when driving. If that young lady had been paying more attention, she would have realized that the traffic had stopped. It all turned out fine, my sister picked me up from the hospital, bought me a frosty McFrap, and took me to her house where my husband, parents and daughter were waiting for me. The two people at fault (the stupid flat tire guy and the young college lady) both received citations for their part in the accident. The best part of the story is that no one was seriously injured, so there was a happy ending for all :-)
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