It's getting so that I'm almost afraid to drive anymore. I was in a major accident recently. It had the road shut down for hours. I was making my way through the construction to upgrade IN 37 to I 69 during morning rush hour. Some poor sod going home from his third shift job failed to negotiate a lane shift, at moderate speed. I don't know if he fell asleep or was texting but when everyone else veered to the right, he went straight. I happened to be in the way.
I saw it coming. It wasn't slow motion but I think I can see why people say these things happen in slow motion. There were a tremendous number of thoughts that went through my mind in a very short period of time. I thought, “That's not right, I hope that guy knows something I don't know, or am I doing something wrong?” even as I'm looking for some kind of evasive response. There was nothing that I could do, and even if there had been there was no time to do it in. Still, there was an extra instant, where I still hoped I wasn't seeing what I thought I was seeing, that it would all be alright.
CRASH, “Nope, he hit me!” The world was then all screaming metal and burning rubber. I tried to take the shoulder but was drawn inexorably into the oncoming lane. Looking at the picture I think you can see why my truck was out of my control. Fortunately there was a break in traffic just there and no one else was involved. The driver of the lead car in the next pack told me that he didn't see the accident, but saw a big truck sliding sideways across the pavement and “knew that wasn't good.”
I nosed a traffic barrel gently aside and came to a stop, thank goodness. My knee hurt a little bit but other than that I was fine so after a deep breath I started looking for my phone. Everything in the cab had been thrown around and it took a minuet to find it. I called 911 first but they already knew about it. Next I called work to tell them that the best day cab in the fleet had just been totaled. Then I called my girlfriend, because I just really needed to hear a friendly voice.
I was talking with Cate when I heard someone yelling at me, “Hey, Driver, are you OK? Get out of that truck!” There was a short pause then more forcefully, “Get out of that truck!” I opened the door and saw that there was a quarter sized hole in the fuel tank, just below me. Diesel was pouring onto the road. Diesel is a lot less flammable than gasoline, but it can still ignite. In fact the firemen said that with all the sparks that had to have been flying as the frame of my tractor slid across the pavement they were surprised it didn't. I might have been burned to a crisp!
I'm not sure if the fire department got there first or the sheriff. The EMTs got there a little later and the State Police were the last to arrive. Nobody asked me any questions or anything other than was I OK until the State Cop arrived, he was in charge of the accident scene. The others were busy though. A couple of fire fighters threw absorbent material under my tractor to capture the diesel and there was a crowd around the car that had hit me.
I was afraid to go over there. I was sure the guy was dead, looking at his vehicle. I asked someone and they said no, he was still alive. They were trying to get him out of his smashed tin can. They ended up having to cut the roof of the car off. I breathed a sigh of relief at that news. I mean, he hit me after all, but still... I never heard the final outcome but a month after the accident I was told he was still in the hospital.
There were plenty of witnesses to say that it wasn't my fault, that there was nothing that I could do. The accident is officially unpreventable; my record is clean. After I got back from the clinic where I took my drug test I was afraid work was going to put me into another truck and have me keep on driving. They didn't. In fact they told me to take as much time off as I needed. I came back the next day. I figured I'd better just get right back on that horse that threw me.
This happened back in late September. Originally that phase of I 69 was to be finished by October. If they'd have been anywhere close to schedule then the traffic pattern that caused my wreck wouldn't have been in existence. There have been a lot of wrecks through there. For awhile it seemed that the road was backed up due to an accident once a week or so.
The new estimate on completion of the project is May...of 2018. There's more than a year left that we have to deal with this crap, and it is crap, let me tell you. Sure, the roads under construction, but do there have to be bumps capable of damaging a car's suspension? How's that for INDOT's commitment to public service and a timely completion to the project?
