Alex Coleman @Its_GalPalAl [Executive Web Editor]
While the rest of the show choir was either at home, or working to be on their way, Lauren Zimmermann and Sara Farnham, seniors, were still driving back from Omaha. After a full weekend of shopping, competing, and having a great time in our neighboring state, the two girls and Sara’s mom decided to stay another night. The next morning the weather conditions had worsened, but they decided to press on anyway. Going a slow 40mph on the interstate, their odds of getting home safely were pretty good. All of this, however, spiraled downhill very quickly.
The passengers of the car experienced a good patch of road for a few miles, but were met with the sight of police lights and car accidents soon. Coming onto this rough patch of road, Tracy Farnham, Sara’s mom, started slowing down. “The car in front of us swerved out of control, so we moved over to get out of their way. Well, they gained control, but then she looked back and said very calmly ‘Oh, we’re going to get hit by a semi’. Thirty seconds later-it felt so much longer-the semi hit the the back of the car drivers side,” explained Zimmermann.
Due to the nonchalance of Mrs. Farnham’s tone about the impending accident, the demeanor inside the car was not exactly what one would expect. “I was literally so calm,” commented Farnham, “I was thinking more about where my bookmark had disappeared to, and how upset I was that I was going to need to dog ear my page before we got hit.” The pair found the particular book she was reading rather humorous. Titled The Longest Ride, there were multiple scenes in it that involved a car accident where the person got stuck in the snow. “It was funny, because we were just talking that morning about how if we ever got into an accident we knew all of the survival tricks,” joked Zimmermann.
After the collision happened, there was still not much of a panic from anyone around. The police officers didn’t express much panic for the accident, as it had been slow, they’d watched it happen, and it was just another one to add to the list in the area. “The patrol car just kind of backed up and they were like ‘hey are you guys okay.’ Everyone was oddly calm about all of it,” Zimmermann said. After the three of them waited in the ditch for a while, they got out of the vehicle and filled out a police report. After lots of questions from the authorities, they just left and were promised they could come back to get their stuff later. “I left my wallet full of cash in there, plus my stuffed giraffe Alfred. Lauren had to leave her laptop and her baby blanket in there. We were only able to grab, like, our phones and the chargers,” explained Farnham.
Although nobody had to go to the hospital for serious injuries, the repercussions of the accident. Both girls are experiencing neck and back pain, and Farnham even experienced a weird pain in her left palm. “I’m going to the chiropractor later this week to make sure nothing is actually wrong,” Zimmermann explained. The girls successfully left the incident without a scratch, but they almost wish that wasn’t how it had turned out. “I was hoping for a few bruises or something, some sort of battle scars,” Farnham joked. The experience was a scary one, but the girls escaped with a story to tell.
