CenterLeft.net

Boy has it been a busy… quarter, I guess.  I got a vacation 3 months ago, but ever since then it has been non-stop.  Things are starting to come together a bit though.  Only a couple more fires to put out before some new ones spring up, I’m sure.

Monday was exciting.

I was out on highway 240 in eastern Washington state.  I was just coming over a hill when I noticed a 40 – 50 foot tall plume of dust.  As I got over the hill I looked for the tractor, but instead saw a pickup truck that had just crashed.  I pulled onto the shoulder and ran over to the truck.  The driver was pretty out of it but seemed to be in good shape.  There wasn’t any obvious damadge and he was blinking.

As I was on the phone with 911 the guy started waking up more and looking around.  He wouldn’t listen to us about staying still and waiting for the ambulance.  Instead he climbed out, lit a cigaret, and started walking down the highway.  After a couple hundred feet with one of the responders walking with him, the victim turned and headed out across some fields.  Eventually the owner of the field, in a pickup, caught up to him and talked him into stopping and the ambulance was able to find him.

While the medics where taking care of him we had a look at the truck a little more carefully.  It was really it bad shape.  The truck had come off the highway and rolled.  Both of the axles were broken, all of the tires were popped,  and the body was really mangled.  The driver had been wearing his seat belt though, and that probably saved him.

The officer told us after the ambulance left that it seemed like the guy’s only injury was a bump on his head and a cut by his eye.   I don’t know how fast he was going, but the driver told one of the responders that he had been doing about 100 miles/hr and had driven off the highway on purpose.

So strange stuff, but this is probably one of those times that we’ll never know the whole story.