A friend asked the following question about the accident I
captured via a “dash cam”: “Was it luck, Divine intervention, or your past
experience that allowed you to stop so quickly? One more second and you would
be headed to a different doctor. My guess it was a combination of the three”
(The video in question is below)
(The video in question is below)
I was already slowing down and I left foot brake (old habit
from racing days) so it was just a matter or mashing the pedal a little harder
when I sensed him coming over. I have good peripheral vision (Earnhardt use to
say "I can see my ears" LOL) and raced back in the day before
spotters. A driver had to clear himself
when passing so with a slight turn of the head you can "see" your
relationship to the other car on either side.
I really wanted to get two lanes over to the right when we came up on
the traffic stopping as that was the best "way out' but the truck was not
slowing, I was and I could not have made it over without him hitting me. Only option was to slow enough to NOT get hit
in the rear from my lane and leave enough room between me and the stopped truck
to provide a buffer or escape area should the pile up begin behind me.
It seemed as though everybody was slowing EXCEPT the big
truck. What surprised me was him locking
down the brakes. When he did I could
hear it and that's when I got aggressive on the brake and moved left to give
him room. If he had gotten OFF the brake and let to truck roll a bit he could
have very easily moved into my lane ahead of me and missed the white pickup in
front of him and stopped prior to hitting the signal/sign DOT truck. But, he turned while the brakes were locked
down and that jackknifed him. At that
point he's just along for the ride.
I've seem far worse crashes than this up close on the race
track. Been part of some, but that's
with guys in cars with good roll cages, 5 point harness, wrap around seats and
helmets. Even then it's pretty violent but the gear protects you. I don't regard this as a particularly violent
crash but without protective gear the damage can be 10 fold to a person. When I pulled over and got to the big truck
the driver was semiconscious. He looked
dazed and did not respond to anyone, just stared at us. I didn't go to the little pickup that hit the
trailer and suspect he got the worst end of the deal just because it looked
like the frame rail of the trailer went into the drivers area at the windshield
post. There were several people already
out and around so I just told the Highway patrol dispatcher via the phone the
location and that there were several injured.
There was no danger of fire (no fuel leaking) plenty of help on the
scene so I left at that point to make my doctor appointment.
Luck, ... without question.
Divine intervention ... I'd like to think I'm a favored son. Past experience. .... no doubt about it. As a police officer I took defensive driving
courses several times. Driving race cars
didn't hurt. The biggest factor IMO is
that with life experiences as a cop, pilot and part time racer maintaining
situation awareness at all times trumps luck and can make Divine Intervention
unnecessary. I know that this particular stretch of I-15 produces accidents
just like this 15 times every 24 hours.
Hard to believe but those are the statistics. 87% of those occur in the northbound
lane. This happened at about 2 PM and
around 6 AM the same morning there was a fatality a couple of exits up the
road. I can not remember driving this
route without seeing some kind of traffic accident. Last week returning home
from the same appointment at the VA I went through almost the exact same thing
but that time it was a previous wreck and the Highway patrol partially blocking
the left lane southbound. I always
prefer the far left lane because there's usually another entire lane to the
left that's not used. It's there so
emergency vehicles can move during gridlock.
This way if it looks like I'm about to get hit from the rear I can jump
into this lane and perhaps escape the wreck.
Well, this time that lane was occupied by the Police car, a truck
pulling a trailer and a car that were involved in a prior accident. I saw this from a half mile away and began to
slow tapping the brake to alert the guy behind me. He slowed and my lane was under control and
alert. The lane to my right (just like
this accident) kept moving as though nothing was wrong. In about 3-4 seconds I could see all 5 lanes
slowing ahead and like the train effect it got more severe the closer we got to
the scene. About this time 4 cars in the
lane to my right came by bumper to bumper with the noses almost dragging the
ground due to heavy braking. All 4 were
locked up and squalling. The first slid
into the pack and the other three plowed into the whole mess. It wasn't bad because they had all managed to
slow quite a bit and their speed was relative to one another. However, I could
see some parts flying and hear the collision.
All of them crunched the front and rear as I passed by. None of them came out of their respective
lane, just another fender bender, so another bullet dodged.
Download YouTube Video
