Krynj
Platinum Member
About five or six years ago, me and three of my buddies were traveling from Maine to North Carolina to stay with a friend for a week or so. The drive started on an early summer day. The first stop was somewhere in Massachusetts for Ozzfest. It was an all day, outdoor festival that left all of us pretty sunburned and worn out when it ended at nearly 12:30AM. Despite not having slept at all the night before our trip started, I volunteered to drive from Massachusetts until whenever I got tired. Due to the all-nighter I inadvertently pulled the night before, I hadn't slept in about 36 hours by the time I agreed to drive. I'm a great tired-driver. Falling asleep at the wheel is something I've never, ever come close to doing in my life. I was wide awake, alert, and ready to get some driving done.
We make our way to the interstate, and for a couple hours there's plenty of chatter and laughter amongst the four of us. We've got tunes playing in the CD player, and caffeinated beverages to keep us going.
Slowly but surely, everybody starts falling asleep one by one. Leaving me at the wheel by myself, driving roads I've never driven before.
7:00 AM rolls around, and I've been awake for roughly 43 hours. We're somewhere in central Pennsylvania. I pull over, gas up, and wake up the rest of the gang -- it's somebody else's turn to drive. I get into the back of the Blazer, roll down the window to get a nice breeze on my face, and get some shut eye as Miah takes over the driver's seat.
I'm not asleep for more than 10 minutes before I'm jolted awake by the sound of our screeching tires. I quickly wake up and look out the window, and see nothing but a blinding fog. The screeching tires that woke me up were Miah's quick reaction as we came upon a huge traffic jam in this extremely dense fog. We didn't lose control, but we were off the road. Halfway between the ditch and the shoulder. I urged him to pull ahead as far as he possibly could. I knew what had just happened to us would happen to somebody else, and soon. I knew there were other drivers speeding right into the same traffic jam, laced in blinding fog, and they would probably take the same course of action we did. Miah takes my advice and pulls ahead, but only a few car lengths.
We're all quite panicked, but amidst the chaos, I tell him a few more times that we should pull up some more, to avoid getting hit by anybody. This has all just happened within span of 30 seconds, so we're all just trying to grasp the situation, and think of what to do next. Wary of oncoming traffic, I look out the rear window -- nothing there. There's more discussion between the four of us -- "Where are we?" "What happened?" "Is everybody ok?" I turn around and look out the rear window again -- all clear. All around us we can hear tires screeching and slamming into parked cars in the roadway. I urge Miah to pull ahead a bit further, but there's a lot of chatter in the car, so it fell on deaf ears. I turn my head to check the rear window again.
A big nasty grill that reads "FREIGHTLINER" is bearing down on us. He's probably a couple hundred feet away, but he's not moving slowly. I turn around, and brace for the impact. Hanging on for dear life, all I can think to myself is "This is it. This is how it ends. I am about to die."
I sat there, waiting for what felt like an hour for it to come. Eyes squeezed shut, and practically hugging the driver's seat in front of me.
Finally, it hits. The rear window shatters with grenade-like force, showering us all in bits of razor-sharp chunks of glass. The impact effortlessly launches our SUV forward. Despite the seat belts, we're all jostled about pretty violently. We stop moving. I keep my eyes shut a few moments longer, anticipating yet another collision.
It doesn't come.
Desperate to make sure we're all OK, we look around the cabin -- checking for any obvious injuries. No blood anywhere. No moans. Not even any aches and pains.
Holy shit, we're alive, and completely unhurt.
We exit the vehicle and examine the scene. Back in the distance behind us, we hear more tires screeching, and more metal smashing metal. Keeping our eyes and ears focused on the fog behind us, we carefully meander around the scene.
The semi that hit us wasn't carrying a trailer, thank god. But before it hit us, it managed to side swipe one car, and then smash through the rear of the RV before it finally hit us. Who knows what would have happened had it not hit those 2 vehicles before hitting us. Could have been a drastically different outcome.
As it turns out, an 18-wheeler had jackknifed about a mile up the road, subsequently backing up traffic for miles. I think news reports said roughly 25 cars were involved in accidents due to the blinding fog and traffic jam.
Be careful when driving through Ravine, Pennsylvania on rainy mornings. Locals told us later that day that accidents like that happen all the time along that same stretch of interstate.
Cliffs:
-18-wheeler flips over in blinding fog. Causes huge traffic jam.
-We drive into stopped traffic at about 65 mph, and swerve off the road to miss it.
-Semi truck headed right for us. I'm convinced I'm about to die.
-Hits us, hard. Totals friend's Blazer.
-We all make it out alive, and totally unhurt.
-:thumbsup:
Anybody else ever been convinced they're about to die?
We make our way to the interstate, and for a couple hours there's plenty of chatter and laughter amongst the four of us. We've got tunes playing in the CD player, and caffeinated beverages to keep us going.
Slowly but surely, everybody starts falling asleep one by one. Leaving me at the wheel by myself, driving roads I've never driven before.
7:00 AM rolls around, and I've been awake for roughly 43 hours. We're somewhere in central Pennsylvania. I pull over, gas up, and wake up the rest of the gang -- it's somebody else's turn to drive. I get into the back of the Blazer, roll down the window to get a nice breeze on my face, and get some shut eye as Miah takes over the driver's seat.
I'm not asleep for more than 10 minutes before I'm jolted awake by the sound of our screeching tires. I quickly wake up and look out the window, and see nothing but a blinding fog. The screeching tires that woke me up were Miah's quick reaction as we came upon a huge traffic jam in this extremely dense fog. We didn't lose control, but we were off the road. Halfway between the ditch and the shoulder. I urged him to pull ahead as far as he possibly could. I knew what had just happened to us would happen to somebody else, and soon. I knew there were other drivers speeding right into the same traffic jam, laced in blinding fog, and they would probably take the same course of action we did. Miah takes my advice and pulls ahead, but only a few car lengths.
We're all quite panicked, but amidst the chaos, I tell him a few more times that we should pull up some more, to avoid getting hit by anybody. This has all just happened within span of 30 seconds, so we're all just trying to grasp the situation, and think of what to do next. Wary of oncoming traffic, I look out the rear window -- nothing there. There's more discussion between the four of us -- "Where are we?" "What happened?" "Is everybody ok?" I turn around and look out the rear window again -- all clear. All around us we can hear tires screeching and slamming into parked cars in the roadway. I urge Miah to pull ahead a bit further, but there's a lot of chatter in the car, so it fell on deaf ears. I turn my head to check the rear window again.
"HOLY SHIT, IT'S A SEMI!!!"
I sat there, waiting for what felt like an hour for it to come. Eyes squeezed shut, and practically hugging the driver's seat in front of me.
Finally, it hits. The rear window shatters with grenade-like force, showering us all in bits of razor-sharp chunks of glass. The impact effortlessly launches our SUV forward. Despite the seat belts, we're all jostled about pretty violently. We stop moving. I keep my eyes shut a few moments longer, anticipating yet another collision.
It doesn't come.
Desperate to make sure we're all OK, we look around the cabin -- checking for any obvious injuries. No blood anywhere. No moans. Not even any aches and pains.
Holy shit, we're alive, and completely unhurt.
We exit the vehicle and examine the scene. Back in the distance behind us, we hear more tires screeching, and more metal smashing metal. Keeping our eyes and ears focused on the fog behind us, we carefully meander around the scene.
The semi that hit us wasn't carrying a trailer, thank god. But before it hit us, it managed to side swipe one car, and then smash through the rear of the RV before it finally hit us. Who knows what would have happened had it not hit those 2 vehicles before hitting us. Could have been a drastically different outcome.
As it turns out, an 18-wheeler had jackknifed about a mile up the road, subsequently backing up traffic for miles. I think news reports said roughly 25 cars were involved in accidents due to the blinding fog and traffic jam.
Be careful when driving through Ravine, Pennsylvania on rainy mornings. Locals told us later that day that accidents like that happen all the time along that same stretch of interstate.
Cliffs:
-18-wheeler flips over in blinding fog. Causes huge traffic jam.
-We drive into stopped traffic at about 65 mph, and swerve off the road to miss it.
-Semi truck headed right for us. I'm convinced I'm about to die.
-Hits us, hard. Totals friend's Blazer.
-We all make it out alive, and totally unhurt.
-:thumbsup:
Anybody else ever been convinced they're about to die?
