An interesting and eventful morning. I was returning back to Portland from Medford and had decided to stop at my usual nap spot at the Scott Valley exit just north of Rice Hill, OR. I pulled off into the downhill S-curve offramp and saw debris all over the road and the crumpled and dark remains of a car at the bottom of the offramp, resting on the grassy verge between the offramp and the highway. I saw another vehicle pull up and someone with a flashlight get out and start looking around. I pulled up onto the shoulder and threw my four-ways on and immediately called 9-1-1 to report an accident while I set out road flares to warn exiting traffic. As the other responding motorist and I approached the car, we saw a male in his early 20s slumped on the front seat of the car, which was heavily damaged. He appeared to be breathing but was unconscious or asleep. Suddenly he jumped and was awake, looking groggily around. I informed him he had been in an accident and asked him if he was hurt. He was pretty incoherent at first, and said several times that he was scared. He actually shied way from us and jumped into the passenger seat. I kept talking to him, trying to keep him calm and to reassure him that he was okay and that EMS and police help was on the way. The poor kid was pretty rattled, but managed to spit out that he was on his way back to college in Southern California. Which was odd, since he was driving a car with Washington plates and had clearly been driving northbound when he crashed. He was pretty distraught and said his mom was going to be mad because he wrecked the car. The other responding motorist, a Canadian guy who had been pulled over taking a quick nap just up the road and had heard the car crash and drove back to investigate, reassured him that his mother would be glad he was okay and thats what mattered. The kid was missing one of his shoes, so the other motorist and I searched for the missing shoe with our flashlights, as there was broken glass and sharp bits of plastic everywhere. Then EMS showed up and took over, so I was able to inch my rig past the wreck and get out of the way. A couple of observations: - I had been delayed by about 15-20 minutes leaving Medford due to a bad trailer number and having to re-hook another rear box. - I have pulled off onto that same offramp shoulder many times over the years to grab a nap. Its off the highway far enough I never worried about anyone accidentally striking my truck parked on the shoulder. - The young man in the car apparently fell asleep and drifted off the highway down the offramp, where he struck the dirt/rock embankment at a pretty high rate of speed, spun around and ended up down the offramp on the opposite side about thirty yards past the impact point. And didnt appear to be hurt at all. Ah, the flexibility and invulnerability of youth. - Had I not been delayed, my tractor and lead trailer would have been sitting at roughly the spot where the kid went off the road at high speed and hit the embankment. Not my favorite way of waking up from a short nap. Im not much for divine providence, but I am glad I wasnt sitting in that spot, taking a nap in the bunk, when that kid left the roadway. Another close call out of a million close calls in twenty-five years of driving truck. And this is by no means the first time I have been a first responder to an accident. Several have been bad fatality wrecks. All things being equal, it turned out okay for the kid, from what I could tell. He seemed unhurt and no one else was involved. It could have been much, MUCH worse. So please... if you start to feel drowsy, know WHEN to pull over and take a nap. And when you do, be careful WHERE you pull over to take a nap. I think Ill be looking for a new nap spot from now on...
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:01:38 +0000
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