Tony Wilkins busy being born

The Wreck On The Highway

I took a paperwork shortcut at one of my suppliers in Thomasville that determined the split second that my wheels would touch the highway from the on ramp heading back home to Greensboro. I didn’t know at the time that would affect my life forever.

As I merged into a conglomerate of vehicles traveling at 70 miles per hour I quickly became uncomfortable. Upon merging to center to attempt to get around the vehicles a large brown explosion came from the left. At the very split second the vehicles I was attempting to get past began spinning like toys. With both hands on the wheel I fishtailed, bounced off the other vehicles and spun time after time until I landed on the right of the highway at the ditch heading north, the same direction I had started in. I looked around the vehicle for blood and found none. A vehicle flipping down the embankment behind me exposed four bodies flopping that looked like they had been choreographed. All four would live.

The smell of oil and metal permeated the air.

In shock the seconds unfolded and I found myself wandering in the median. A vehicle had been nudged in the southbound lane and had shot across the median like a rocket hitting almost head on an SUV to my left. The brown explosion was the landscaped area that was being tunneled through by the vehicle.

A large bearded man was ejected from the southbound vehicle and lay mangled on the highway with a pool of blood forming under him. A man in business attire was attempting CPR. I wondered why but admired him for trying. He was dead. He had a wife and two children and I assume he was on his way home from work.

The destroyed SUV revealed a lifeless arm. In that vehicle a couple in their early 60’s were dead. They were on their way to see their son get married.

My chest began to ache. I remember wondering if God had a sense of humor. Would he let me live through this accident and take me with a heart attack in the median?

A large young man with a red bandanna wondered toward me and asked if all the people in the SUV were dead. Still in shock I mumbled something to the effect that I didn’t think it was even known yet how many were in the vehicle.

In wasn’t until the evening news that I found out this young man was charged with causing the accident. He later retreated to a relative’s house and committed suicide.

Four people dead.

One second and one lane made a difference in my outcome.

The years I spent training in the fire department and all the accident calls I responded to could not have prepared me for the real time experience. I had some perception, perhaps from tv, that you would have time to respond in an accident situation. You do not. I can’t convey how quickly this unfolded.

I went back the next day and sat on the side of the road trying to put into perspective the events from the previous evening. I had not bounced off the other cars. My truck was bouncing on the highway during spinning. I have to assume this might occur when a vehicle is about to flip.

The accident is difficult to discuss. The post may serve as some type of therapy.

On birthdays, holidays, special occasions, and on days when the sun rises in the east the video plays over and over without the benefit of an erase or delete button.