Outrageous Science Experiments

Clean-up on Lane 1

The worst accident I had up to now was a crash on I-81 in Virginia when I was driving a load of five girls from Radford College up to D.C for a week-end visit. (They paid for the gas, I did the driving). My '67 Chevy Impala SS-327 was nicely up to that job.

We were cruising down I-81 around Roanoke, Virginia, when I noticed that the right lane up ahead was blocked by a big wrecker. As we got closer, I saw a policeman standing beside the wrecker holding a fire extinguisher. They were working on pulling a Semi out of the ditch on the side of the road.

The wrecker was sitting sideways across the entire right lane, and they had flares marking the lane as closed for some distance before traffic got there. Plenty of warning.

I saw the warning, and slowed down and moved to the left lane. So did the car in front of me. However, the idiot in front was not watching where he was going and crashed right into the back end of the wrecker, spinning sideways and now blocked the entire left lane as well. Where is a poor Chevy going to go?

I tried to clear him, but my front right bumper hit his rear end and I slid to a stop sideways as well. Now we had the entire Interstate blocked, and it stayed that way for a couple of hours. Traffic piled up for miles, I was told later.

No one in my car was hurt, except for me. The driver of the first car was hurt, but I never saw him. I had braced for the impact and was doing fine until the girl next to me grabbed my arm and I went sideways into the rear view mirror, cutting a gash in my scalp. You bleed a lot when you cut your head, and I was not looking so well when we all climbed out of the car.

My dog, Ginger, had been riding in the back seat (yes it was a bit crowded, but cars were BIG back then) and when the door opened, she bolted out of the car, and ran across the other side of the Interstate into the woods. I started to go after her, but the policeman who was already there stopped me since I was a bit messy looking.

The excitement was not over. When the guy in front of me hit the wrecker he junked the front of his car, tearing up fuel lines. When I hit him, the front of his car burst into flames. That would have been really bad if the policeman had not been standing there with the fire extinguisher. He just pointed the extinguisher at the front of the car, and put the fire out. Who could have planned this better!

The car that guy was driving was a mess before the wreck. When I hit him, the gas tank broke free and went sliding down the road. That was fortunate, or else the entire car might have gone up in flames, Hollywood style!

The emergency crews who arrived on scene hauled us to the hospital in Roanoke. The girls were all cleared to go, but I had to have stitches put in my head where I got gashed. As I was being worked on, a nurse walked in and told the doctor working on me to hurry this up, since the police were going to take me to jail. WHAT! Then a policeman walked in and said, "not him, the other driver!" He was AWOL from the Army, driving a stolen car, with no driver's license. Phew!

After we were all cleaned up, the police hauled us all to the bus station, where we caught a bus for D.C.

Finally in D.C.

As we arrived at the the bus station, I saw a Virginia state trooper and a bunch of nervous parental types standing on the curb waiting for us. I thought that maybe they had changed their mind, and I was going to be in trouble, but it turned out the that trooper was the father of one of the girls. He got a full report on the accident, and gathered up all the parents to get them to the bus station. I was a hero of sorts, since I had managed to get the car out of the way as much as I could and had not hurt any of the girls!

What a weekend that turned out to be.

Puppy Hunting

A week later, I managed to get back to Roanoke to look for my dog. She was last seen disappearing into the woods across from the accident site, so a friend and I drove into the area next to the Interstate and started knocking on doors. I got to one house and a small boy answered the door. I asked if he had seen my dog, and described her to him. He said sure, they had taken a dog in who looked like that, but the owner had come by and picked her up. Huh?

I asked him if his parents were home, and he went and got his mother. She took me aside and told me that they had called the dog catcher, who had picked her up just that morning. They told the kid it was the owner so he would not get upset.

I was upset now, since I had rescued this puppy from the dog catcher a few years earlier, just before she was to be put to sleep! I called the local pound right waay and was told that the truck, with my dog, was still out on patrol. They radioed the truck and we arranged to meet at a nearby gas station. A nervous hour later I had Ginger back, frightened from riding in that truck, but very happy to see me.

Overall, quite an experience, and one I hoped not to repeat.

Now for the answer

Can a Tacoma fit under a school bus?

Not really!

I was driving the cat to a doctor's appointment a few miles from home. (Maybe I should not be driving with animals in the vehicle!) It was raining pretty hard, something rare around these parts. The windshield wipers were going full blast, and I was behind a big yellow school bus. As we approached my turn, I moved over near the curb, and was watching for my turn out of my one good eye. It was hard to see the turn. I glanced back up front just in time to see that that durned bus had stopped right where I was planning to turn. I hit the brakes, the nose dipped down and BOOM, I hit the right side of his back bumper. That thing was pretty high (there was no one in the bus but the driver.

Unfortunately, the nose of my truck on the driver's side did try to go under the bus. But the hood was in the way. It crumpled all up leaving me seeing nothing but blue sheet metal. Not that I could really see it, since the air bag went off. Even though it was probably a Tacata bag, I was not killed. Shoot, I was only going about 15 miles per hour.

But the truck is toast. Enough expensive stuff in the front of the truck was bent that the insurance company totaled the thing, and now I rely on Cheryl's Uber service to get around. At least until I can find another truck.

Life is full of fun surprises. At least I took Cheryl to Valentine's Dinner the night before, and we had a nice time. This Valentine's Day will go down in history.

Way down!