It Never Went Away…

The lifelong mark left by a terrible accident.

Forty years ago, Katie had just turned eleven. She was in the backseat of the car, a 1969 Nash Rambler. The car was solidly built, her father was driving and her mother was in the passenger seat. There was no reason to for an eleven-year old to feel anything other than safe and secure.

The family was stopped at a major intersection, Katie’s father waiting for the light to change. Coming from the left, in cross traffic, a semi-truck started to make a right-hand turn. The driver had the green light and plenty of room to turn into the lanes on the Rambler’s left. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem. But there was a problem.

The trailer was fully loaded. The semi-truck was going a little fast. One of the outside tires on the trailer was flat. These factors combined to create a tilt towards the outside of the turn. Centrifugal force did the rest.

Katie heard her father swear. She looked up in time to see what looked like a steel wall falling slowly toward the stopped car.

There was nothing her father could do. The cross traffic prevented him from going forward and there were other cars on his right and behind. Katie remembers there was just enough time for her dad to look at his wife. She says there was a “goodbye, I love you” look exchanged. And then the overturning trailer hit.

The next thing Katie remembers is her father yelling at her to climb out the now shattered back window. The roof of the car had crushed downward so that he was pushing on her with one arm squeezed between the top of the front seat and the collapsed roof. There was a little blood from the broken glass. She could see the trailer of the truck had split open and crates were spilling out onto the hood of the car.

Fast forward

No one died. Katie and her father weren’t seriously injured.

It turned out the driver knew he had a flat but thought he could make it to his destination. The truck was also loaded improperly with the cargo distributed unevenly.

Her mother was treated and still has some back pain that comes and goes. Insurance paid for the car. Ramblers were discontinued the next model year. Forty years later, the incident should be just a long ago childhood memory; except it isn’t.

Katie has her own children now. She’s as normal as anyone, except when she’s driving anywhere near a semi-truck. She absolutely cannot travel alongside a big rig. She has a hard time even passing one on the highway. She follows them, when she can’t avoid it, at least three car-lengths behind. She is visibly shaken when she’s trapped in city traffic next to a semi-truck.

Katie avoids truck stops on the interstate. She won’t even walk next to a parked semi if there is another way to go.

There are scars and there are scars. Katie can’t get over her phobia and the little movie that plays in her head when she’s too close to a big truck – the movie where the wall of steel is falling toward her.

This blog post is based on a true story, but the names have been changed to protect privacy. We deal with tragic incidents like this more often than you think and it can be heartbreaking. We encourage anyone who has had a similar experience to post your story below. The more aware the public is about these sorts of incidents, the more likely it will be that we can change the laws and standards associated with truck accidents to keep more people safe on the road.

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