The_Kitchen_Guy
Silver Member
- 12,458
I was on my way home from Upnorth yesterday afternoon and right after merging into heavy traffic on US 41 in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, an SUV that was just feet from my front bumper swerved to miss a piece of lumber that was in traffic. I walked back and grabbed that *&^#! board and tossed it into the emergency lane, against the barricade. (It was a pressure treated 2x2 that still had the barcode sticker on it - some moron must have been headed home from Home Cheapo and didn't have his load secured. THIS was the result!)
Someone had hit the board; it was standing on end and dancing in the traffic. The SUV swerved to miss it, so did I. But the driver of the SUV overcorrected and went into a skid. He then overcorrected the skid and bounced the truck off the concrete barrier, spun again and rolled over on to the top, sliding into the concrete barrier.
The debris field was huge and I was just able to avoid hitting the front bumper of the SUV that popped off when it hit the barrier the first time.
As I was talking to the 911 operator, the passenger crawled out of the passenger window and screamed that someone was trapped inside. By the time I had my car out of traffic, there were about a dozen people swarming around the vehicle, trying to get to the trapped occupant.
Within minutes, the site was swarming with first responders and police officers.
There is nothing more sickening than the sound of squaling tires, crunching metal, breaking plastic and crashing glass. I feel fortunate to have kept my vehicle out of the accident and more fortunate to have not been injured. While I was filling out my statement, this is what the scene became:
The guys in the blue jumpsuits were the pilots and EMTs from here:
As the responders were reloading equipment, I walked up to one and said, "You guys are fantastic." He just shrugged and said, "We're just doing the job we're trained to do." I chuckled and said, "Maybe, but we never get to tell you how much we appreciate you." He just mumbled, "Thanks" and went back to work.
This is all that made the local media, at least, that I found:
http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070825/APC0101/708250608.
Someone had hit the board; it was standing on end and dancing in the traffic. The SUV swerved to miss it, so did I. But the driver of the SUV overcorrected and went into a skid. He then overcorrected the skid and bounced the truck off the concrete barrier, spun again and rolled over on to the top, sliding into the concrete barrier.
The debris field was huge and I was just able to avoid hitting the front bumper of the SUV that popped off when it hit the barrier the first time.
As I was talking to the 911 operator, the passenger crawled out of the passenger window and screamed that someone was trapped inside. By the time I had my car out of traffic, there were about a dozen people swarming around the vehicle, trying to get to the trapped occupant.
Within minutes, the site was swarming with first responders and police officers.
There is nothing more sickening than the sound of squaling tires, crunching metal, breaking plastic and crashing glass. I feel fortunate to have kept my vehicle out of the accident and more fortunate to have not been injured. While I was filling out my statement, this is what the scene became:
The guys in the blue jumpsuits were the pilots and EMTs from here:
As the responders were reloading equipment, I walked up to one and said, "You guys are fantastic." He just shrugged and said, "We're just doing the job we're trained to do." I chuckled and said, "Maybe, but we never get to tell you how much we appreciate you." He just mumbled, "Thanks" and went back to work.
This is all that made the local media, at least, that I found:
Appleton Post-Crescent said:
http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070825/APC0101/708250608.
I just figure that God has had plenty of opportunities to take me in the last several years, so I know that my work here isn't done yet.There must be thousands of people left on my list to annoy before I get called home.
