Thursday - evening
Welllll....
So my work wanted to get me an uber and do all kinds of driving today - we're talking it was already after 11 am. I was looking at getting back by what, 10 pm at the earliest? No thanks. But, she tried and tried to get Uber over here and we don't have Uber here, tho they do work in Shreveport. Figured they could come from there over to here, but apparently none of them wanted to do that.
I finally put my foot down. There is no way I'm going to be out that late doing this stuff. Long story short, the lady of the house eventually came home and I went over to get the truck only, not go get loaded in Crossett. Ridiculous nonsense.
We're toodolooohing through Shreveport on I-20 eastbound, up on the bridge that goes over the Red River and the divider between Shreveport and Bossier City. I don't really pay a lot of attention when I'm not driving. I'm just not behind the wheel. I don't want to be s side chair driver, that gets annoying. I was looking down at my phone but something told me to look up.
We're going 60 or so mph, and traffic literally shut down right in front of us. I thought for sure we were going to crash into the vehicle in front of us, but she was on top of it, slammed on the brakes and very narrowly avoided a rear end collision.
The people behind us? Not so lucky. The car immediately behind us also slammed on their brakes, she managed to avoid hitting us, but the semi truck behind her? Yeah, no. He slammed into that car. The semi was trying to move over while slamming into that car and the SUV next to the truck moved over and then a speeding pickup literally smashed into that SUV, a sort of T Bone crash but at more of an angle.
The SUV hit my friend's truck in that maneuver directly after we had avoided a rear end collision. We just looked at each other in stunned silence, it was rather shocking. She pulled over to the right side of the bridge - there is no shoulder there. The truck pulled up behind us, the SUV and the pickup were deep into each other. So deep, the front wheel of the pickup were off the ground and just sitting there like that.
Well I didn't know what happened to anyone but looking at the front of the truck I immediately knew the truck driver would be alright. We went back to the SUV - there was no one getting out of these vehicles folks, no visible movement at all. We didn't know what was going on. A lady gets out of the SUV but she goes to the rear door and pulls out two young kids, I'd estimate 7 and 9 years old, young boy and girl. The boy was in tears, the mom was swelling up, the girl was shocked.
My friend started talking to them but we brought them to our vehicle, theirs was totaled and it was very hot outside today. Put them in the back of the truck and I was trying to console them while walking to the truck and eventually after I got in the front seat and really tried to calm them down. The boy couldn't stop crying, I don't blame him, if you saw where that truck hit that SUV and how heavy that collision was?
It was buried into that SUV's rear door. I guess I didn't post the pics of that on my Facebook page, I'll have to add them, those are the worst pics of all of it.
The lady that was rammed into by the semi eventually walked up to where we were at. She was sobbing, I mean it was worse than that little boy. She was just in shock. I think everyone there was shocked by what happened. That lady was in her late 40's/early 50's and she cried for a long time. The mother was teared up for a bit but she calmed down and left her kids with us while she went and started getting her stuff ready to move out of that SUV, she also handed her phone to me to tell the dad where we were.
It was taking so long for first responders to get there, I wondered if anyone had called 911, so I called them. 5 vehicle crash on the bridge over the Red River, minor injuries, a little girl smashed her head on the window and she needs attention. You see, I didn't even know about that pickup until a little later. I couldn't see it from where I was at, the SUV was crashed into the side wall to keep people from - falling off the side of the bridge and into the river. Amazing job it did, that concrete didn't budge. It's all lined with a huge amount of rebar and it's is very strong.
It was around 20 minutes before Bossier police arrived. It was another 10 after that before fire and ambulance got there. Just amazed at how long it took them. I made sure the cops knew that this little girl needs to be looked at.
But then, a woman appeared from behind the SUV. I looked, who is that? Oh I think that's the lady from the pickup. There's a pickup behind there? Yes, it crashed into the SUV. She was dazed and confused. This is the reason I wear seatbelts. You hear a handful of stories of how people died because their seatbelt wouldn't release, but most of the time, in such situations, they save lives, way more than any deaths they may cause.
Anyway, the lady brought her tiny little dog to our truck and deposited it in the back seat with the kids. She didn't want it running out into the highway and getting run over. This did it for the little boy. He got all happy pretty quickly, the tears dried up and the whole atmosphere changed. I spoke at length with the truck driver. Bad day for him, they would have cited him for following too closely. Half his bumper was destroyed but beyond that, it was perfectly drivable from all appearances.
The father was working at an oil rig an hour away. When I talked to him, he said "I'm hauling ass, where exactly are you?" It took him a while to get there. The mom - who is a nurse it turns out - thanked us profusely for our help. The man also thanked us at the end of it. I don't know how long we were there, but we were sweating profusely by the time it was all over with.
Eventually went and finished the job of getting the truck. Walaah! They actually fixed the ac!
I've got to get off of here. I have a long day ahead and stuff to do.
