Day 1 "The Accident"

         On September 9th at around 7:21 am my daughter Ashley was in an accident with her 2011 Chevy Cruze. She was heading to her first day of work as an Registered Nurse. She didn't see the vehicle approaching her from the left and pulled out in front of it. Her car was hit on the drivers side just in front of the front wheel at about 40 to 45 miles an hour. I will never forget getting the call from my wife that morning stating to me that "Ashley was just in a accident".  I was working 25 minutes from home and had to travel through the worst traffic of the day. This was the longest ride of my life. My wife called me when she arrived at the scene and said that she was able to talk with Ashley for a moment. She stated that Ashley was complaining about her neck and back and that there was emergency personal on the scene and they were transporting her to the hospital. My wife told me that Ashley pulled out in front of a 2002 Ford Explorer. The Explorer then hit a school bus which was at a stand still. Thoughts were racing through my head as to how injured my daughter was. When I arrived at the hospital I was informed that Ashley had a concussion from her head hit the drivers window and they were waiting for results of the  x-ray's on her neck which came back all clear.  I discussed the accident with the officer that came to the scene. He explained the details to me and that Ashley would receive a citation due to her being at fault. He also told me that he was a little shocked that no air bags deployed in the vehicle. The officer stated that he was no engineer but he would have thought that one of the bags would have deployed. When the vehicle was hit on the front end it spun so hard that the back end whipped around striking the Explore a second time. The following are pictures from the scene.

What happened that day happens to many parents each and every day with outcomes far worst then what we had to deal with. I discussed the accident with my daughter and she stated to me that she remembers the impact and then coming to her senses and seeing the driver of the Explorer getting out and walking to the side of the road and  immediately began snapping pictures of the scene. She also stated that a driver pulled up next to her, rolled down his window and snap a picture before leaving the scene. This really bothered me that no one came to check on my daughter to see how she was. She had no assistance until a person living in the area who worked for the Menomonee Falls fire department came to her aid. We were able to walk out of the hospital with are daughter that day which I thank God for every chance I get. If the impact would have been five more feet back my daughters head would have hit the front of the Explorer instead of the side window. It took about a week before all the aches and pains went away for Ashley. During that time we needed to pull items from her vehicle because it was being totaled by the insurance company. When we arrived at the tow yard we removed the items and signed some paperwork to release the vehicle. While talking to the women at the front desk she also made a comment about the air bags not deploying. I told her that when my daughter purchased this car one of the selling points was the high safety rating the vehicle had as noted in this link. ( http://www.autotrader.com/research/article/new-research-safety/76382/chevrolet-cruze-first-to-earn-five-star-crash-test.jsp  )  This was the second time someone questioned the air bags not deploying. That evening I received an email from my brother with the following link attached ( http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/06/04/us-safety-agency-may-expand-gm-airbag-recall/ ). The model year talked about in this link was the 2012 Cruze a year newer then Ashley's vehicle. My Google search results brought up many links about GM airbag issues or recalls. I thought at this point it was time to contact GM.