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gravdigr · Jun 30, 2011

The following is a direct copy and paste from a post I made on my facebook page detailing the experience I had today. It is written geared towards non drivers so I will be explaining some things you folks already know.

I have been chewing it over in my mind all day and been too busy to really express it.

The day started out for me at 12:30am my time (my time is central time, the time I use to fill out my log book). As I'm driving I come across an electronic information sign noting that there is a crash 72 miles ahead and to expect delays. Incidentally I am travelling on I10 eastbound towards phoenix, az.

I'm making good time. My mileage is good enough that the governor on my truck allows me to run the max allowable speed for my truck which is 65mph, the speed limit is 75 mph. I pass a schneider truck and another white tractor trailer and pull back over to the right lane in front ofr them.

A little over an hour after passing the warning about the accident I see the flashing lights of a patrol car. As I go past I see he has no one pulled over. I become alert and slow down putting my 4 way flashers on as I was taught. The police cruiser is a sign we are coming up to backed up traffic from the accident.

We come to the traffic and it is totally stopped, cb chatter says there is a tractor trailer overturned and on fire (there was also a passenger car involved but I didn't know that at the time.) Phil, my trainer is sleeping in the bunk and I pout the truck in neiutral, set the brakes and turn off the headlights leaving the marker lights on. preparing for a long boring rest and some entertaining cb chatter.

I look over at my passenger side mirror and see the 2 trucks I passed pulling over to the burm behind me and a lot of people walking around. I have been told at accidents when traffic will be backed up for hours that drivers will often pull out lawn chairs and sit out in the road ############. So I figure I will step outside and stretch and join the weenie roast (I will regret the weenie roast thought later when I learn about the accident in front of us).

As I start walking back I immediately see something is wrong. Headlights are blinding me but I can see reflections of broken glass on the highway. Looks like someone had a fender bender.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

What I walk up on was so horrifying I am still trying to process it. First responders are trained to see this kind of thing, I was not. I will try to describe what I saw as I believe it happened given the witness comments and evidence at the scene.

Remember when I said I passed those 2 trucks? Well before them I had passed a white fullsize van towing a car lugging up the hill. Aparrently what happened was the schneider truck I passed Had come to a stop on the highway because of the backed up traffic. He had his 4 way flashers on and had set his parking brake. From what I can tell the van was probably travelling at least the full speed limit of 75mph having picked up momentum coming down the hill. He was either distracted (cell phone?) or dozed off because he never touched his brakes or tried to swerve as he slammed into the back of the fully loaded schneider truck (driver said he was just under 79k lbs). The van hit the truck so hard that, even with the truck brakes set, it pushed the truck 5' forward into the trailer in front of him.

The schneider driver pulled forward as the van had folded the dot bumper (that metal bumper than hangs down from the back of the trailer) all the way up under the trailer and the van was under the trailer.

As I walked up to the van I saw the engine compartment looked like it had exploded with debris scattered everywhere. The windshield was spiderwebbed all over and you could not see through it. I asked a bystander if anyone checked on the driver/passengers. They showed me you could see through a crack where the windshield separated from the A pillar on the driver side. Through the crack you could just see a bit of the drivers head, his face was buried in the airbag, and his hand still on the steering wheel. We tried yelling at his but he was totally unresponsive. I now believe at this point he was dead.

I moved around to the passenger side and this is where it got very scary...this is where I got the shakes that would not go away for a good 3 hours. The passenger side door had blown off. What I could see was all the cargo in the back of the van was now where the front seat should have been. We were looking for any signs of passengers. We find it. Where the door was attached to the van we see a crack and in that crack we see what is obviously long dark hair belonging to a female. We start calling though I cannot imagine we will get a reply, she would be stuffed in the footwell under the dash....we get a reply that will stick with me forever. Screaming. Hysterical, confused, terrified female screaming muffled from all the debris on top of her. It scared the everloving #### out of me. She just kept screaming. Then mercifully it stopped for a few seconds. Then this time the screams came again but this time they were for help. Oddly that relieved me.

Then the helplessness....what do we do? There are no police or emergency services. This poor woman is trapped in pain, confused and obvoiusly scared out of her mind. But I had been trained, when coming upon an accident with victims you do not move the victims or disturb the scene unless the victim is in imminent danger, like from a fire. There was no imminent danger here, no fire. I know in my mind we did the right thing waiting but that little voice in my head keeps asking "why didn't you do something, what if that was your family in there?".

Almost 20 minutes after first arriving on the scene finally we see a patrol car coming. Then the police do what we could have already done. They start pulling all the stuff out of the van. Those of us nearby help by clearing the debris out of their way as they pitch it out of the van. I am shocked to see them pitch what looks like a 5' long air tank from an upright air compressor out of the van. Those things are heavy and can do some damage in an accident.

After the debris is cleared out of the van I get another shocker. This van had a wire mesh divider between the cargo area and the front passenger area. This steel divider was wedged up against the dash. I hear the police talking to the woman, I can just see the top of her head and her forearm and hand sticking out. She has one of those blue rubber wristbands on her wrist people love to wear....then I hear the officer say "11 year old boy". Good god, where was he? I would never find out. The rescue finally came with the jaws of life to begin cutting the woman out and the police cordon off the area and we are moved back. We watch from a distance and finally see them remove the woman. Then my heart sinks as I see the rescue workers stay with the woman rather than return to the van. The boy and his father are dead. As lifeflight comes for the poor lady I turn around and walk back to my truck.

On my way back I see the driver of the schneider truck sitting in his cab and I stop to talk to him. He is an older gentleman and I feel bad for him. He did everything right, but I know in his mind he is hurting. His last words were "I hope they are ok". He either doesn't know or is in total denial that 2 people are dead and I'll be suprised if the woman makes it. Now this driver will be subjected to a drug and breathalyzer test, his truck will be picked apart by dot officers looking for any fault or defect, he will be put out of service pending a full investigation. You see when there is an accident involving a commercialo vehicle resulting in a fatality fault is often put on the cmv driver even when it was obviously the 4 wheeler drivers fault. This guys life will become a living hell because of a momentary lapse of someone he doesn't even know.

My mind is reeling as I finish walking back to my truck. Let me explain something about how the governor in ym truck works. When I first start on the road my governor limits me to 60 mph. Once the computer sees we are acheiving an acceptable fuel mileage it will step up to 63mph, then aqgain to 65 MPH. Remember when I said I passed those 2 trucks? I was doing 65 mph and just passed them. They were governed slower than I was. Had I not acheived the full 65mph on my governor I would have stayed behind the schneider truck, and it would have been MY trailer the van hit. I literally stopped in my tracks. How narrow a margin I had escaped tragedy. The thought still gives me goosebumps.

I got back in my truck and woke Phil my trainer up to fill him in and we talked for a bit.

I am now in the sleeper to get my required 10 hours rest while he drives. I am going to try and get some sleep and hope I can stop hearing that poor woman screaming in my mind.

P.S. Please all you 4 wheeler drivers out there take a lesson from this. At 55mph a vehicls travels 81 feet in one second. At 75 mph it travels 110 feet. Looking away for just 3 seconds at 75mph your vehicle will cover the distance of a football field and then some. PAY attention to what is going on around you. You have no idea how fast you can come up on a stopped vehicle. Let me ask you something. Take a guess how long the white painted lines are on the highway, and how much distance there is between them. I bet you will be wrong.

Those lines whizzing past are 12' long, with a 24' gap between them.

Incidentally I forgot to mention. The accident that started this whole mess was a car vs another tractor trailer. They caught fire. Bystanders managed to remove 3 family members from the car but it became fully engulfed before they could remove the grandmother. They had to watch her burn. Regretting my weenie roast comment when I learned this. As we finally drove past the scene the truck and trailer were completely disintegrated. The debris left could nfit in the bed of a pickup truck.
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GuysLady · Jun 30, 2011

I have been on the scene of many an accident. My heart goes out to you. Prayers sent for everyone involved. Directly or indirectly.

Roadmedic · Jun 30, 2011

I am trained to deal with this and I assure you I have seen my share.

You never get used to it.

It will get easier each day, do not be afraid to talk it out.

I watched a car flip over and over in Arizona one new years day. It stuck with me and made sleeping that night difficult.

I was one of the first ones on the scene and then had to call 911 and advised they were beyond help.

GuysLady · Jun 30, 2011

It been 8 years now, and there is one accident that to this day I cannot forget. I see it in my mind every time I approach that intersection.

rjones56 · Jun 30, 2011

Thinking the saddest part of this is how it will change innocent peoples lives...especially truckers.

sammycat · Jun 30, 2011

My thoughts and prayers gravdigr that you find some peace and solice

My thougths and prayers to those who lost their lives and their family and friends

My thoughts and prayers to the driver who did what he was suppose to do and will have his life forever changed

blktop-bucanear · Jun 30, 2011

Sooo Sorry to hear. prayers and strenghth to you and all affected. "But for the grace of god go I"

Big Don · Jun 30, 2011

Roadmedic said: ↑

I am trained to deal with this and I assure you I have seen my share.

You never get used to it.

It will get easier each day, do not be afraid to talk it out.

I watched a car flip over and over in Arizona one new years day. It stuck with me and made sleeping that night difficult.

I was one of the first ones on the scene and then had to call 911 and advised they were beyond help.
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The ones that really bothered me were the ones involving kids. I've been out of all types of emergency response since 1996. But all those years of law enforcement, ems and fire have taken their toll. I STILL have nightmares.

Tazz · Jun 30, 2011

Digger the memories will fade. The feelings behind them less so. People often wonder at trucks slowing traffic miles before it actually stops. Sometimes if you can cut through that bs on the cb(and believe me I would dearly love to choke the ignorance coming from your average foul up when others are making a concerted effort to prevent the carnage you saw) good drivers will do their damndest to bring traffic to a slow stop.

Doesn't always work out. Do the best you can which it sounds like you did.

GuysLady said: ↑

It been 8 years now, and there is one accident that to this day I cannot forget. I see it in my mind every time I approach that intersection.
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Got one of those.

I was running a Florida load the other day and had "forgotten" it. I pulled over to catch my breathe when it registered. There are some things I wish I could let old age take.

mydogsnores · Jun 30, 2011

Prayers for everyone effected by this tragedy!!! no one understands until they have been made witness a tragic accident! I tell ya it makes you feel so helpless .... when on the road with my hubby, watching a band of crotch rockets zoom past us on Easter Sunday in Little Rock..I wont go into a full detail but I will say we knew it was coming & put the jake on, warning everyone behind us to shut down as it was happening ahead & BAM two of them crashed into each other while one was popping a wheelie.. that kid lost his foot & I will forever have that image of him writhing in agony burned into my mind..it was beyond awful & that was mild compared to some we seen out there, but for me it was a first to have happen right before my eyeballs...I never felt more compelled to physically throttle the stupid kid that smashed into the other..thank god no one crashed behind us, even though four wheelers were spinning in circles behind us..it could have been so much worse than it was... four wheelers & motorcycle riders have no idea what a trucker see`s on any given day..

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