There was that awful screeching of tires. I was amazed that they sounded so close. The next sound was very loud, metal striking metal. Then a loud thump, as something large hit the house. I couldn't believe my ears - I knew they hit the house. Our house!

My heart started pounding and my feet moved faster than I thought I could move because I had talked with John on his car phone about 10 minutes earlier - the sounds I would have expected were of the garage door opening, not an accident.

I flew out the front door. An older tan car was planted in our rose garden, a small sporty red car was parked in front of the drive way and a truck was on its side across the sidewalk and into the newly planted side area of the house. I dashed to the truck expecting to find John. I must have blinked and relooked at that truck for minutes trying to convince myself it wasn't his. It wasn't John's! Some man kept yelling at me to call 911. I felt as though I was dreaming as I ran back into the house to the phone. It was dead!

I ran to John's business phone - it worked. It wasn't until an hour later I remembered that I was still on AOL. That tied up our phone line. The 911 operator had many calls about this accident, so I ran back out to help.

Some people turned the truck back over in order to free the driver pinned under it. He was bleeding from his head. They had more hands than they needed, so I checked the occupants of the other cars.

The tan car was crumpled into the brick wall surrounding our yard and the roses. One young woman was screaming at a bleeding, dazed, and shoeless woman climbing out the tan car. A tatooed man and crying little boy also climbed out. I heard the young woman accusing the driver of being "on drugs" or "drunk". She walked away as I reached them. I herded their group to our drive way and checked the child. He was just very frightened. The man had hit his head on the windshield, which was now all over the roses. The woman was confused and had multiple cuts on her legs.

The driver of the red car moved from in front of our drive way, as John drove up.

John and I watched as the police closed the street and three fire trucks and an ambulance surrounded us. There were people everywhere - several taking pictures with cameras and videos. Soon a helicopter appeared. They were picking-up the head injury man.

We learned what happened through several witnesses and from the man in the red car. The woman in the tan car had hit the man in the red sports car. She didn't stop. She fled the scene (and from him). He lost sight of her until he came down our street. She had slammed into the truck as she tried to turn onto our street. The driver of the truck never saw her. They estimated the woman was going close to 50 mph, in our neighborhood!

We met the man in the truck today. He came by to pick-up the contents of the truck bed. He had several cuts on his head, but was amazingly in good shape. Nothing broken.

John and I couldn't believe what had happened. Several people's lives changed, all in an instant. A man almost lost his life and the family in the tan car could have been injured worse. It was horrible. It was so senseless. You can't even be careful out there!

There was one casualty. Our crab apple tree. The equipment from the man's truck sliced down our tree. The sounds hitting our house were from the tree and his lawn mower.