i20 outside of weatherford this morning

[doctahjones]

went with a buddy go to pickup a car and haul it back from lubbock yesterday. we stopped for gas just outside of weatherford just before 2am. we got back on the road and a few minutes later traffic is stopped. there were probably 20 semi's ahead of us with a a bunch of emergancy lights ahead.

we sat there for about 20 minutes and then a helicopter came in and landed. after we saw that we crossed the median (there was pretty much no westboud traffic) WITH the trailer the car was on (!!!), got to the next exit and turned around so we could continue eastbound on the service road.

the truckers on the cb said there was an 18 wheeler going westbound that fell asleep and drifted into eastbound traffic and collided head on with another 18 wheeler. two other cars were involved. i haven't been able to find a story about the accident yet though.


so when we went past the accident i hopped in the back seat of the truck and tried to get some pics. they're very poor quality but that's all i could get from the moving truck, pitch black dark outside and my 50 f/1.8 & d80 at hi2 iso.


pieces of the offending 18 wheeler



debris streched about a quarter mile or so



i guess they were able to pull someone out. that smashed in thing on the left is a semi




the waiting helicopter






i can't help but think what would have happened if we hadn't stopped for gas right then, because that accident couldn't have happened more than 15 minutes before we got there...and that's about the same time we stopped for gas.

[kenw]

yes it does make one think. We once came across an accident involving some folks we had 'met" coming out of a store when we were going in. The only reason I remembered them was their car was very new and loaded to the gils with wrapped Christmas presents.

20 minutes later, they were both dead.

Many years ago in Missouori we came across similar accident to the one you caught. Two big rigs had a glancing head-on on a narrow 2 lane highway. The cabs were both smashed only on the drivers' sides. The one truck remaining upright was can-opener'ed down the entire side of the trailer, and a few tons of bolts, screws and associated hardware was spread all over the highway. The police were directing us to drive over it, it was the only way to get thru. We never found out the details, but it was my first time driving on a long trip and it left a mark.

Life is fragile; handle it with care.

[doctahjones]

actually, just found the news article about it...

basically a 18yo girl was westbound on the service road and decided to get on the freeway by crossing the grass. a westbound semi swerved to miss her and ended up in the eastbound lanes, and his trailer collided with the eastbound semi. the driver of the east bound semi died later of his injuries.

http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1651942.html

doctahjones added 8 Minutes and 52 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

timestamp on our gas receipt was 1:05a. it was 'reported' at 1:13am. gas station was 5-10 min from the accident.

missed it by a few minutes. and i'm not meaning missed it like i wasn't there to witness it. i mean missed it like it could have been us. it's kinda trippin me out.

[CaptainTom]

I am not a religious person.
I do however feel that there is something that watches over us.
Whether it's a Guardian Angel, or some sort of mental signal we get that causes us to act to avoid a problem.

I can tell you that I've had several remarkable close calls that make me try to
figure out what caused me to stay alive.

Glad you were on the good side of things this morning. It tends to put our lives in perspective.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

I am not a religious person.
I do however feel that there is something that watches over us.
Whether it's a Guardian Angel, or some sort of mental signal we get that causes us to act to avoid a problem.

I can tell you that I've had several remarkable close calls that make me try to
figure out what caused me to stay alive.

Glad you were on the good side of things this morning. It tends to put our lives in perspective.

God watches over even grumpy old men.

[ka5txl]

Originally Posted by JohnT

God watches over even grumpy old men.

I'm glad somebody's watching over me