Ho-lee Shit!
We went over to my ‘rents for dinner and to watch The Last Samurai. The movie was okay if not a bit predictable.
The ride home is what was the major event. We were coming across RR620 headed home around 11PM. As we approached our turn at Lake Creek I was doing about 50MPH in the right lane. I needed to get over into the left lane to make a left turn and signaled my intent. I looked in the side-view mirror and saw a car about 250 yards back, more than enough clearance. I started to change lanes and as my wheels hit the line I looked in the side-view again and noticed those lights were now 20 yards back. In a few seconds he had closed the gap. *Shit* I aborted my lane change to let the fast mover, the really-fucking-fast mover, by. I moved the two feet back into my lane. At that same instant the car I didn’t see directly behind me that he was drag racing decided to pass me on the right.
On the shoulder.
In a construction zone.
Where there was no shoulder.
He missed my tail by about a foot then hit a sign sideways at 90MPH when the real fun started. He hit a pile of dirt and his car was launched. He rolled three times while doing an end-over. He came to a very abrupt halt when he hit a drilling rig parked 40 feet off the road. When he hit it his car was 10 feet in the air. The rig didn’t give so his car did. He landed upside-down 60+ feet off the road. I came to a stop off the road while the truck he was drag racing took off. I was the only car to stop. No one else saw the accident. I got on the phone with 911 and ran around the rig to see if I could help. I got around there and saw an arm sticking out of a window. Not what I wanted to see but what I expected to see.
Then the arm moved.
I bent down to look into the crushed car and the guy asked it I could help him out of the car. This dude was conscious. I was completely stunned. I was sure he had been killed after seeing that accident. His car was trashed and squished. It was so trashed I had no idea what kind of car it had previously been. The roof was so crushed in he couldn’t get out nor could I have helped him if I wanted to. I got off the phone and told him EMS was on the way.
Next he asked to borrow my phone.
I politely told him ‘No’. Hell, I couldn’t see too well and I didn’t want blood and shit on my phone. I told him EMS was almost here and they’d help him but making a phone call should be the least of his worries. By then a couple folks had stopped to lend aid. I got a better look in the car. The guy had unbuckled himself and was sitting on the roof of his car. Amazing.
EMS arrived and used some prybars to get him out. They loaded him on a stretcher and drove off.
I swear, my son and wife are no longer going to want to ride with me. My Defender seems to be attracting trouble lately. I was really pissed at the guy in the wreck because he put my family in danger to show his ‘man-hood’. I know it’s wrong to think this but I’m glad he got what he deserved. I hope he learned his lesson as expensive as it was.
: Upside Down from the album “Play Everywhere For Everyone Austin, TX 03-10-04” by Barenaked Ladies