Update: Here are the details as Ive recollected them and the thoughts about the incident last night. Im driving westbound on I-74 in the right lane about 4 miles west of Crawfordsville, IN at about 10:20 PM EST. Several cars pass on my left. After the last car in the line passes, I start to change lanes to go around a slower car in the right lane. As Im in the middle of the two lanes during lane change, the truck that is about 6 car lengths ahead of me brake checks hard and starts to swerve to the right. During this maneuver the truck skids completely sideways in the middle of the interstate. The driver of that pickup lets off the brakes and the truck corrects itself and straightens out into the right-ish lane. As that truck clears the middle of the highway, Im still basically in the middle of the interstate during lane change, I see headlights careening directly at me. Thankfully I had already started slowing down because of the pickup. I jerked the wheel left to the edge of the highway, half on the highway and half in the median. I heard the wrong way car smash into one of the vehicles behind us. I saw smoke (most likely radiator steam and tire smoke) and sparks flying everywhere. I continue to slow down and stop off the edge of the highway in the median. I immediate reach for my phone and Abby says Just go J. Ill call 911. I grabbed my phone and headed at a dead sprint toward the first car I see. Its a newer 4-door Jeep. The ladies were getting out of it and I yell to them, Are you two ok? They answered that they were. I take off running toward the next car I see not knowing how many cars were involved. This car is down in the ditch along the right side of the highway. I slowly walk down towards this car knowing this was the one that was the wrong way as I dont see any other cars involved and the Jeep was the car I was attempting to pass. As Im walking toward the car, Im prepping myself for the gruesome scene that I might walk upon. I cant see into the car from the drivers side (the side I am approaching from) because of the side impact air curtains. I move around to the front of the car and I can see into the car because one of the doors opened or was jarred enough to turn on the interior dome lights. I thankfully dont see any blood splattered or on the guy. I point at him and yell into the vehicle, Are you ok? I repeated it three or four times. He vaguely acknowledged me. Then I yelled into the car, Were you the one going to wrong way? This guy had a hazy, glazed look about him and I immediately assume he is drunk as hell or drugged up on something. He was moving around a little bit and was very sloth-like with his motions. He was trying to pull his right leg up with both arms under his thigh and move his leg to a stretched out position into the passengers side of the car. I didnt see anyone else in the car thankfully. About that time, the guys from the pickup truck were coming toward me and confirmed what I already knew that this was the guy going the wrong way. I walked up to the right edge of the interstate and turn my flashlight on my phone towards the on coming traffic to alert them to slow down as the two vehicles exploded all over the interstate. 30 seconds later i see cherries and berries heading toward me. I flagged them down and they took over from there. I went back to stand with the ladies to make sure they were truly ok. I went back to the van and moved it from the left median to the right shoulder. I went back and talked with the police to give my witness statement. As I was filling out the paperwork, there was another driver standing there doing the same. Him and I started conversing with the officer standing there assisting us. The truck driver said he saw the guy (this is what I am putting together in my mind as to what happened) going westbound (same direction as we were going) and then flipped. He went into the median and did a 180 to start going eastbound. He went back into the median and the trucker thought he was going to flip again because he stopped at the edge of the highway in the median. This time, he takes of eastbound in the westbound lanes and floors the gas. The truck driver said his governor is set at 72 MPH and that is what he was going trying to keep up with the guy but the guy was out running him. This guy was probably traveling 80+ MPH. I believe he was traveling in the left lane and swerved at the pickup truck that was in front of us. That allowed me to swerve left and narrowly miss this guy because he was now angling from the left lane towards the right lane. He continued on that path and I feel he swerved at the Jeep that he hit because they were swerving away from him as the Jeep and his vehicle had no front end damage other than the bumpers being ripped off. The drivers sides of both vehicle had extensive damage to them. The Jeep lost both driver side tires and the car lost the driver side front tire. The cop assisting us told us that he pulled a shotgun out of the front passenger side of the wrong way car. Thankfully that guy was lethargic and not very coherent or he might have otherwise taken his own life or got out of the car and tried to take one of our lives. Im very thankful that no one was seriously injured or killed. Please pay attention when driving! If I had been messing with the radio or something along those lines, I would have never seen this coming and who knows what would have happened.........
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 03:15:04 +0000
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