You don't see things like what I just saw an hour ago every day so I thought I would put in an entry about it to just keep the thing clear in my mind.
I am on interstate 20 heading eastbound towards Monroe Louisiana. There is an SUV about 500 feet up ahead of me. What I saw the next was surreal, something that you just think you will see on videos on YouTube or something.
The vehicle suddenly swerved to the left, went over partially into the center divider which is a huge expanse of grass, and then headed directly towards the right/shoulder side of the Interstate, over-corrected steering, slid sideways off the steep embankment and then rolled twice, landing on it's roof.
It all happened so fast yet it was like it was in slow-motion. As I slowed the truck mounted to stop and pull over on the side of the road, I noticed three or four other vehicles and I just passed right on by. They slow down and looked and kept right on going as if nothing happened. I just truly shocked me to see these people just take off like that.
Well, I got out of the truck and started running down the steep embankment to get to the vehicle which had landed on its roof of again some trees in the forest. As I was running up there and got close to the vehicle it suddenly hit me that there could be people dead, seriously injured, or who knows what inside of this thing. The sense of foreboding overcame me to the point of fear, but that didn't stop me from getting up to the vehicle to see what kind of carnage there might be inside of it and what I could do to help get them out of it.
Well it became quickly obvious that the doors were not going to work, at least the side doors were trashed. But then I heard some pounding on the rear door window which was so darkly tinted that I could not see inside of it. A woman's voice, screaming while banging on the window "open the door! Get us out of here!" That's the part that gets tears in my eyes, this happened an hour plus ago, I am still trying to process all of this.
Fortunately for all of us, the rear door was not badly damaged and opened right up from the outside latch. Then the sound of little girls voices screaming, there was a divider in the back I cannot see to the front of the vehicle. Perhaps it wasn't any divider, just something just hanging down I don't really remember to be honest.
Mom got out and then got all the three girls out afterwords. But then she went back inside the vehicle to grab shoes for the little girls who were barefooted. She handed me the youngest one to hold and comfort and I gave her a big hug and told all of three of them that that was going to be alright. One of the other girls that was sobbing and crying also wanted a big hug too so we had a little group hug going.
It was at least 20 minutes before state police showed up to the scene. The driver who was following me from our company, he had a load of pipe on his truck for the same place as well, well I don't know about him. I mean he took his time coming down there after he finally got up to the accident scene.
Anyway I just continued to console the little girls until they were happy and have big smiles on their faces again. Dad was called to come get them but he was an hour away. I stood there with them until police showed up and then long after that because the police wanted a statement from me of what happened.
I chatted with the mom and we exchanged information and will become Facebook friends and she said IOU a big dinner at my restaurant. She manages a seafood restaurant in a town that is not too far away from where the accident happened, which was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.
The thing about this accident is that SUV rolled into such a place that the only way way you could see it is if you happen to be looking at it when you're passing directly by it.
I still stands shocked that all those people just passed by without even going over to make sure that the occupants of the vehicle were okay. How can you do that? How at the end of the day do you live with yourself knowing that there is the potential that those people could've been dead and dying or the vehicle Catches on fire and more hands were needed to get those people out, or who knows what?
Those particular thoughts will stick with me for a long long time.
People will not understand why a man in cry about a situation where everyone walked away unscathed. It's one of those things where you would have to be there and experience the whole thing from beginning to end.
