Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas San Diego, Ca. March 2012

Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas San Diego, Ca. March 2012
Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas at Luche Libre Taco Shop in San Diego, March 2012

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Suddenly Southbound In The Northbound Lanes


Okay, so you're driving northbound on the highway, behind the wheel of a full size pick-up truck towing a trailer full of building material. The speed limit on the particular stretch of highway you're traveling along is 65mph, and you abide by it. Then something happens - a wild animal darts in front of you causing you to instinctively swerve, or maybe something causes the load in the trailer to shift - perhaps a powerful gust of wind hits the trailer like a kite.

Whatever the cause, you lose control of the truck, along with the trailer, and somehow execute a complete 180-degree turn on the highway. This turn slams the truck and trailer into the guardrail that is designed to keep vehicles from flying off the highway and into a ravine. The guardrail holds, and your truck and the trailer come to an abrupt stop on the shoulder of the highway - except you are now facing traffic.

You are not seriously injured (though you are shaken up), and you have not hit any other vehicles. Your truck is of course banged up from hitting the guardrail, as is the trailer - in fact, the rear door of the trailer has popped open and the material you were hauling is now scattered behind it - but not on the highway, on the shoulder.

As I drive past the accident site I marvel at seeing your truck and the trailer pointed southbound in the northbound lanes, and I wonder how it was possible to get in that position without having hit any other vehicle or completely destroying your own truck and the trailer.

It is cleanest accident with the greatest potential to have been horrible that I have ever seen. Remarkable.

You, the driver, whoever you are, probably aren't feeling very lucky right now, but you are - you and every driver who was following you on that northbound stretch of highway.

All of you just won the lottery, pretty much.




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