Bad Ride Home (not for the squeemish)

[Deep C]

What i'm about to write is a very dark and graphic recount of a traffic accident I witnessed then got involved with yesterday. I don't write it for shock value, or some morbid facination, or to elicit any type of pity. I write it as a release for all the boiling emotions stewing within me. If you're sensitive, I don't recommend reading on. If you do read it though I would hope that just a trace of the end message about staying aware behind the wheel would stay with you and keep you just a little safer in your on road travels...

I was heading back to Florida after a so so tuna and hunting season. The weather was clear as I crossed the sate on a section of I 195... Ahead and across the median, I could see an eighteen wheeler flatbed heavy with lumber negotiating the sharp curve of the ramp leading my direction. Behind him some distance there was a big dump truck, the three rear axel kind. No biggie, nothing out of the ordinary... The big rig would gain speed, the dump truck would slow or he would simply pass using the clear passing lane.
Moments later I saw a puff of smoke, some boards from the load of lumber became airborne and the world went into slow motion. More smoke rose. This time signalling that the emergency airbrakes were locked up on the big rig. Nothing about this was reading good.

When I studied for my captains license roughly 30 years ago, my dad knew it was a dangerous occupation and that help was often hours away if at all. He insisted that I take all the advanced first aid training I could. He arranged for me to ride with a paramedic squad for a couple week and even watch an appendectomy proceedure. The stuff I learned stuck well. Riding with the rescue squads I learned that to be useful you needed to be able to turn off all emotion, evaluate and react.

As the tail end of the big rig began to swing across both lanes the cab swung the other way jack knifing as it did. That emotional switch was tripped to "off" and the react went into play. I got on my brakes and pulled into the median along side the wreckage. As I stepped from the van... It was quiet. Too quiet. The dump truck had never made any evasive maneuvers at all. The hit was a hard one. The engine pushed back and the lock mechanisms that hold the cab down had sheared allowing the cab to tilt forward. Steam and smoke surrounded where the two met.All the windows had shattered.
I gazed left to the cab of the big rig and saw motion which was a relief. Back to my right a "wooffff" sound pulled my attention back. The orange flames and black smoke signalled that this bvery bad situation just got worse.

I went to the back of my van and grabbed a 12pack of soda. It wasn't much but all I had that I could fight a fire with. I looked left to see the driver of the big rig had the foresight to havean extinguisher and raced toward the flames. I looked right and godd thing I did. A BMW with some simple self serving son of a ***** that couldn't be "inconvenienced" was comming through the median grass half out of control himself. I cursed him and let him pass.
By the time I got to the cab the flames were already out. A second good soul had arrived with a back up extinguisher. The driver door was jammed back and couldn't be opened. I was going to climb the fender and go through the windshield. The hood where I needed to get a hand hold was hot, too hot to hold. Off came my shirt and made a blanket to allow me over the top. Once at the dash I then used the shirt to wipe the glass steel and blood out of the way.

My heart sunk when I saw him. The fight was over before it begun. Game. set, match the grim reaper had won. The pieces were all there but twisted in ways man was never meant to have them twisted in. I reached past his half open fixed stare in a vain attempt to some how find a pulse... There was none.... I hung my head and said a silent prayer for the broken man. The pained look of the big rig driver when I signaled no luck was heart wrenching..

I walked back to a safe spot on the shoulder of the road. The grass was wet with cold dew. I was going to put my shirt back on but the stains and glass put me off. I needed no souvenirs... As it settled in that this one was lost, that emotional wall was dropped. Memories flood in. Never the good ones where the drivers escaped injury but the bad ones like this race through the reaches of your mind. I could hear the school bell and the morning announcements from my high school years that so and so was killed drag racing on the street or that car full of clasmates missed the curve at xyz street and none of them made it. The memories become more personal as I could hear the pained voice of my brother telling me that his first wife of only six weeks had been taken in a head on. They keep comming without mercy, I can now see them. The drunk that blew past me and nailed a big cement telephone pole a few hundred yards up. The guy who tried to pass on the rain slick US1 in the keys and found a linnen truck. The biker who mixed it up with the clam truck in front of the Canyon club....

I was snapped back into the now by a sharply dressed young state trooper, asking if I was ok. I nodded yes and thanked him. I did not envy him or which ever of his troop members that would have to knock on that dorr of spouse, parent, friend, brother or worse yet child and let them know of the tragedy.

I recounted my story to another officer and gave him my contact info should they need it. It was a lonely walk back to the rolling tackle box. I donned a new shirt and looked at the collection of emergency personell. I watched as the abulance carted the broken man away and pulled back on the road. I was heading home to my wife and kid... He and his loved ones would never be together again. I cursed fate. Three seconds either way and those trucks would never have touched.
Then that rage gave way to logic. I processed every wreck I have ever seen. Many caused by impatience, pushing things too far. Many caused by not reading conditions properly. Almost always comes down to human error. This one also falling under that broad umbrella.
Why had he never tried to avoid it?... He was some place else. Sipping coffee, reading a map, dropped toll money, lighting a smoke, eating something sloppy, scratching an itch... Which one? Something else? We'll never know.

We are all guilty of those kinds of lapses... What my prayer would be though is that someone who reads this might lapse a little less. Didn't mean to upset our peaceful little world here but I needed to vent... Thanks...

[Sterling]

Plenty to think about here

Thx Deep

[gradywhite273]

deep, sorry for your troubled ride home, though i can say in this day and age , it is comforting to know there are still people out there ( like yourself) who will help you in a time of crisis, and not just drive by like that BMW.

tim

[Bite Me]

It gives a little more meaning to that phrase that we always throw out as casually as a Hello or Goodbye, Have a safe trip.

Glad you made it home safely.

[fishskipper]

Your right, we all go off in our own little world with a million things on our minds.I guess some are just luckier than others. Wish there were more people like you in this world. Its hard to understand how and why things happen like this, but they do and we should learn from them. Thanks again for the reality check!