I think I just witnessed someone dying.
I’m so upset by this that I can barely see the screen through my tears. And I’m trembling.
And my God, I’m completely freaked out by what I saw.
I had to call my husband because I had to talk to someone or I was going to implode.
Let me see if I can explain this coherently …
I had stopped at Starbuck’s to buy a decaf Peppermint Mocha Twist (have you had one of these yet?? Liquid heaven) and I was on my way to the library to get my daily word count in before I went grocery shopping (something I do every Friday and hate to do every Friday).
I’m going south on Campbell and I’m approaching the intersection of Republic Road and Campbell when I see this white S10 pickup truck go bouncing to the side about two car lengths in front of me, in my lane.
My first thought was, what in the world is that truck bouncing for, how odd, trucks don’t bounce.
And then I saw the smoke.
And then I saw a moving van/truck come to a halt.
And then I realized, the man in the S10 truck had just been t-boned. The driver side of the truck was hit, head on by the moving truck.
You know how small S10 trucks are, right? It was like watching a mama bear giving her baby bear a push and the baby bear nearly toppling over from the sheer size and weight of mama bear.
The light turned red.
And I sat there, horrified, my eyes glued to the white S10 truck. It was like watching a crash scene from a movie – it was just surreal.
The people in the car next to me had their hands clamped to their mouths in horror – even their little dog, who had his head out the window, even the dog’s eyes were wide as if he understood what just happened.
The man in the turn lane, the accident had occurred right in front of him and who was in a prime spot to get hit by the S10’s momentum, jumped out of his vehicle and ran over to the man in the S10 truck.
A woman ran toward the accident from the bank on the corner with her cell phone clamped to her ear and she was yelling into her phone.
I was numb. Absolutely no thought went through my head, I was simply too shocked to have seen the moment right after impact. The picture of that truck bouncing to the side and smoke pouring from the vehicle still burned into my retinas.
When the light turned green, I switched lanes to get past the accident. The very first coherent thought that went through my head was “Thank God the boys aren’t here to see this.” And the second thought was, “Dear God in heaven, I pray that man is all right.”
I slowly drove through the intersection and past the trucks. There was debris littering the pavement and I took a split second to maneuver around it. Then I passed the S10 white pickup truck.
And I made the mistake of looking.
Dear God in heaven, I will never, ever, forget the look on that poor man’s face as I drove past.
He was tilted to one side, but still upright. It was as if he would have fallen over to the side, but perhaps his seat belt prevented him from doing so.
He was utterly still.
And his eyes were open.
And he had the most gruesome expression frozen on his face that I’ve ever seen in real life. It was a mask of both astonishment and horror.
He never moved a muscle as I drove past. And I was driving pretty slowly, not because I wanted to look at him, but because I didn’t want to get myself into an accident trying to get past him … so it had to be a good two or three seconds before I was forced to look away from him and drive past.
The man never even blinked.
I drove to the library. And I parked my car, turned off my engine and started crying and praying the man would be alright. I’ve never witnessed something so horrific before and I was, am, quite shaken up about it. I called my husband to tell him what was going on.
It helped to talk about it.
And now, life goes on. I’m here at the library, writing about my experience to you. I’m sure 99% of the people at that intersection are most likely to their destinations, another second, minute and hour ticks by and the image of that accident will fade from most people’s minds.
But not mine. I will never forget the sheer horror of witnessing a traumatic turning point in someone’s life. That man in the truck, and who ever was driving the moving truck, their lives, will forever be changed.
And I witnessed it.
I can’t imagine what the person in the moving truck must be feeling right now. Can you imagine being a part of that accident? Of course, the moving truck was barely damaged so I’m quite sure the person driving it is unhurt. But can you imagine the nightmares that person will have at the thought that he/she possibly killed someone?
It just makes me sick to my stomach.
As far as I can, given the speed at which the S10 truck must have been going to be bounced like that and end up where he did, he must have been running a red light. And the moving truck had been accelerating because he had the green light.
I’m quite sure, given the angle and the number of cars at that intersection, the moving truck never saw the the S10 truck until it was too late.
That’s purely speculation on my part, but I don’t see how it could have happened any other way. The light was just turning red when I approached the intersection …
*takes a deep breath*
Wow, what a sobering thing to witness. I will be scouring our local newspaper for any news on the man. And I pray it only looked serious and that he is okay.
Write From Karen 