So, its with great sadness, pain and dissapointment that I announce the road trip is over. Bert is dead, we are fugitives from the Mexican authorities and are right now not sure how we are getting back to Virginia let alone London.
We were about 8 hours from our end point in LA, and just over an hour from the border. I had driven for 4 hours so we stopped for lunch at a Subway we saw right at the side of the road. We chatted to the servers about the trip and where we would go next. I bought some cured meats from an old guy selling them next to the store where we picked some other snacks for the rest of the trip. Becca jumped into the driving seat and we pulled out to cross the road, back towards to direction we needed to be. The next thing I remember is the sound of a car horn, then a huge smash, the car was spun 180 degress back towards where we parked. The air bags all popped off and i looked over at becca. Her head was hanging down as if she was unconscious, there was a lot of blood coming down from her head. The car rolled across the road towards a hotel, I shouted to brake then we hit a post or something in front of the hotel. I looked over to Becca there was blood everywhere, she responded to me and then I kind of just snapped into action. I switched off the engine through the dust and haze from the air bags then went round to try and get her out of the car. The door was completed jammed shut so i ran back to other side and got her to put her arms around me so i could pull her out. I dragged her out and propped her up against a wall. There was a hole in her head about the size of a quarter, not too deep but bleeding a lot. I got some napkins on there and got her to hold them on whilst I ran to boot for the first aid kit. There were some small bandages in there I used in replacement of the napkins, i tied up here hair and tried to calm, her down. I was at this point very thankful for all the first aid training I had got in army cadets, the TA, and various work positions. This was the first accident I had ever been involved in, its all pretty surreal writing about it now. I checked out the other car. There were 3 girls occupying it, they all seemed ok, no blood anywhere but it looked like they were in pain. They had hit us straight on, their SUV looked smashed up at the front and had hit a lamp post. After a few short minutes an ambulance arrived and some police cars, thankfully they were quick. I gathered up all our valuables and jumped in with becca. At this point my mind was racing, what about the car, would all our stuff be safe inside it, what was going to happen to Becca, what about the other car, what about our trip.
Link to the crash site. Notice the little ridge from the north, the SUV came screaming over here, we didn't see anything. Where it says 'Subway' is where we the car eventually stopped. http://goo.gl/maps/am8Lu
We pulled into a medical centre and she was taken in on the stretcher, I had to wait outside. There were screams coming out whilst she was being stitched up, I phoned Todd at our destination in Cali to let him know we wouldn't be there and contacted Beccas mum.
We spent the next day and half going between this very basic medical centre, the police station and the judges office in the next town. Turns out we were being held responsible for everything, partly because the other party was local people, but secondly because the rules in Mexico are that we caused the crash because we were crossing the road. Even though the other car was going fast, like very fast, I think about 60mph its not their fault. All they could be charged with was speeding, even if they were doing 200mph we were told, we would still be at fault. In most places, I am confident they would have looked at the speed the other guys were doing and they would be to blame. The medical treatment becca got was not great but the best they could do. The next afternoon found out our insurance was not valid, ALWAYS double check your policy.They only covered us 70kms into Mexico despite us telling them we wanted to drive to Mexico City. We contacted the British consulate who made great efforts to keep in touch with us wherever we were and liaise with our families and travel insurers. Our travel insurers were also great contacting us on landlines at the different places, at this point my UK mobile phones had been cut off to for using them too much overseas and our US phones had no signals, we felt crippled by having no internet anywhere too.
The long and short of the whole story involved a lot of waiting around helplessly, finding out Becca was being held responsible for everything was really not good. We went back and forth from place to place, we were told 20,000 pesos would allow us to leave the country so we could get back to the US and talk to our insurers. We managed to scrape together the cash with some help from family and friends sending cash to a Western Union and by drying out or bank accounts. We were there with little food or drink and Becca was not getting the medical care she needed. We walked across the border with all our stuff being helped by 2 mexicans carrying all out stuff into Arizona. We were free and now we had to try to get Becca some decent medical care and piece together what to do next. One of Beccas fathers friends picked us up and took us over to Tucson, Arizona. Now we are in a bar/restaurant wit wi-fi and english speakers enjoying a beer and trying to get our lives organised.
Whilst Becca was inside the medical centre that first day i took a walk outside to find some food. I looked over at a beautiful church in the town centre, 3 boys rode past on horses this was a beautiful little town, the feeling was very surreal. Later that day when we were transferred to the police station some more cowboys rode up. One of them got off, he looked very cool with his hat boots and spurs. This guy spoke English very well and took a liking to Becca being a pretty actress, albeit with a bandages on her head and scratches bumps and bruises. He had lived in Texas and was married once to an American, and had worked in construction in California. This guy, Jose, was pretty much her guardian angel, he took us everywhere we had to go, he came in on his night off. He translated for us and helped us out, at the end, he borrowed his bosses SUV and drove us up to the US border, he found us some guys to help carry the things over the border with us. We got his phone number, gave him a bottle of Makers Mark and said our goodbyes.
All the time through this Becca was technically under arrest. Because we were Brits they didnt handcuff her or lock her up and I could be with her most of the time. We were guarded everywhere and even slept with the police next to us.
Theres much more to say about this, right now this is all I have the energy to write about. its here to answer the inevitable questions from everyone for the time being. Check Beccas facebook or blog for her story, links are further down this page.
I want to mention how lucky we were. If the other vehicle had hit us on the door Becca would be seriously hurt. All the police and nurses paramedics etc even the magistrates were very nice to us and all good people. Things could have been very different. We are here now with all our belongings and we are alive and fairly well.
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