I just got home from a six-day road trip, with all but one of those days involving sitting in a car for quite a bit of time. On the first day out, we came upon that awful crash on the Will Rogers Turnpike in eastern Oklahoma, where 10 people had died or were dying because a semi ran over them as they were stopped because of an earlier accident. Emergency vehicles were still arriving on the scene.
It's hard to see much from the back seat of a Buick LeSabre. The only unobstructed view was from the window in my car door. I did take a video of us driving by that accident and I will post it if I think it's worthy (and if I can figure out how to do it).
On our last day out, we sat in traffic on I-44 east of Joplin. There was road construction and both lanes were creeping along, when they were moving at all. At one point, a fellow in a pickup next to us motioned to me to roll down the window and we chatted briefly. He mentioned what was probably on every other person's mind in that stretch of blocked vehicles. "I hope no trucker comes barreling along like that guy in Oklahoma."
As soon as our traffic had slowed to a crawl, my first inclination had been to try to see out the back window to get a feel for how the people behind us were driving. The seatbacks are tall in a Buick and I was all strapped in. But still I wanted to know what was back there. Did we have enough of a cushion before there was a semi in the line?
There was a flagger on the Interstate telling people to slow down. He was posted well ahead of the construction. It was 20 minutes or more from when we first saw him to when we came upon the work crew. Of course, this slowdown was caused by a methodical process, not by one accident which resulted in the follow-up accident and carnage.
Several years ago, there was a little girl, only 8 or 10 years old, who lived in the projects in New York City. She found herself in a bad situation in the lobby or stairwell of her building. I don't remember any details but I do remember that she handled herself really well. She was quoted in the article as saying, "I couldn't use Plan 1 so I used Plan 2." Or words to that effect.
I doubt if I'll ever be in a traffic slowdown again without remembering that turnpike accident and wondering if there is an escape hatch.
It's hard to see much from the back seat of a Buick LeSabre. The only unobstructed view was from the window in my car door. I did take a video of us driving by that accident and I will post it if I think it's worthy (and if I can figure out how to do it).
On our last day out, we sat in traffic on I-44 east of Joplin. There was road construction and both lanes were creeping along, when they were moving at all. At one point, a fellow in a pickup next to us motioned to me to roll down the window and we chatted briefly. He mentioned what was probably on every other person's mind in that stretch of blocked vehicles. "I hope no trucker comes barreling along like that guy in Oklahoma."
As soon as our traffic had slowed to a crawl, my first inclination had been to try to see out the back window to get a feel for how the people behind us were driving. The seatbacks are tall in a Buick and I was all strapped in. But still I wanted to know what was back there. Did we have enough of a cushion before there was a semi in the line?
There was a flagger on the Interstate telling people to slow down. He was posted well ahead of the construction. It was 20 minutes or more from when we first saw him to when we came upon the work crew. Of course, this slowdown was caused by a methodical process, not by one accident which resulted in the follow-up accident and carnage.
Several years ago, there was a little girl, only 8 or 10 years old, who lived in the projects in New York City. She found herself in a bad situation in the lobby or stairwell of her building. I don't remember any details but I do remember that she handled herself really well. She was quoted in the article as saying, "I couldn't use Plan 1 so I used Plan 2." Or words to that effect.
I doubt if I'll ever be in a traffic slowdown again without remembering that turnpike accident and wondering if there is an escape hatch.