I guess that's one way to meet the neighbors...

Imagine this situation with me...
It's 1:30am. I'm tired and kinda cranky because I've put my laundry off too long and I need clean clothes for a trip to Cape Town the next morning. I'm just minding my own business and killing time while I wait for the washing cycle to finish so I can load my clothes in the dryer and go to bed.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH

BANG!!!!! (and not just any bang, it shook the walls)

I had no idea what happened. I thought it might have been thunder by the way the windows rattled but then I remembered they don't have thunder storms here. My roommate ran into my room and asked me the number for 911. (looking back there could have been many jokes about that but at the time it really didn't seem appropriate). She said there was a really bad accident. A third roommate ran into the house and we all looked around for the number. After about ten seconds I grabbed my phone and ran out the door. The the whole time I was running I was trying to remember how to do CPR and praying nobody's life would rely on my skills.

Across the street from my house somebody had driven their car straight through a stop sign, through a front gate, through a yard, through a column, and into a front door. It looked awful. There were bricks all over the yard from where the column had been crushed and the car was almost unrecognizable in the font half. A campus police car was already on the scene and told us that he had already made the appropriate calls. My roommate and I assumed the driver had been killed (since the whole front of his car was completely smashed in)and started freaking out about that. After a few rescue vehicles came and were able to get the door off the guy was able to walk out of the car. He was very drunk and very shaken up but some how he came out with only a bloody mouth. Luckily the since the car hit the column first and hit the front door nobody in the house was hurt either.

After we realized nobody was seriously hurt I got a chance to see the humor in the situation. This was the first time I had a chance to meet most of the neighbors and it was 2 a.m. and everyone was wearing their jammies. It was a good chance to get to know each other and talk about how stupid/lucky the driver was.

The good news is...
-Everyone is ok.(except for the fact that the driver is probably going to be in pretty big trouble)
-Campus police were on the scene within a minute. Ambulance, fire truck, tow truck (x3), police cars, etc. were on the scene within three minutes. The response time for an emergency in my neighborhood is phenomenal.
-Now we all have the emergency numbers programmed into our phones.
-The neighbors all seem to be really nice. (except the lady who makes all of the noise complaints against my house)

Never a dull moment.

BTW. The picture was taken two days after the accident. You can see that everything was mostly cleaned up but the column is being held up by logs instead of... column material