a pretty big crash

Well if you've been wondering what it's gonna take to get me blogging again, wonder no more. Yesterday I was involved in a huge traffic collision on the highway. I'm fortunate to have walked away without a scratch, but I do believe it's time to say goodbye to my faithful Subaru. There's quite a bit of media coverage on the incident, since it involved over a hundred vehicles including 13 big rigs, and closed a major California N/S corridor for over twelve hours.

I had pulled off the road as far as I could and stopped, thinking I was in the clear. Turns out I was wrong about that, but at least it's absolutely clear for insurance purposes that I wasn't at fault. I don't know whether to feel lucky or guilty that one of the fatalities (a five year old boy) occurred in the car less than twenty feet behind me, which absorbed much of the impact of the oil tanker that was out of control and heading my way.

Even a tragedy as horrific as this has its bright spots, however. I was stuck at the scene for more than six hours while they tried to sort out the mess, and had plenty of time to get to know my fellow motorists. I was able to hold hands with complete strangers from the cars around me and pray, for the victims, the rescuers, and their families. It's amazing how an event like this can bring people together. At the beginning we were exchanging information simply for insurance purposes, but by the time I left we were exchanging well-wishes and hugs. I even got an invite to Thanksgiving dinner, and that was from the lady who was a passenger in the car I had plowed into (after being impacted from behind and projected forward). One of the CHP officers observed our little group and approached asking, "Are you guys family?" Todd, who was driving the Suburban that did a nice little number on my passenger side, responded, "We are now!"

I snapped a couple of pictures with my cell phone. This one, which I took less than ten minutes after the crash, shows the fog at the time that was a major contributing factor:

You can see my yellow kayak in the passenger seat of my car at right. I had been on my way to meet some folks from the kayak club and do some paddling on the Merced River. Probably the oddest moment of the day came when, right before they loaded my car onto the tow truck, I pulled out my boat and paddle and carried it across the broken glass on the freeway in front of fire fighters, police, and paramedics. Talk about out of place...!

A couple more pics:

Well, that's it for now. I want to do some car shopping online before I call it a night. Any suggestions on preferred makes and models will be duly considered =). Give your family an extra big hug today and tell your friends how much they mean to you- you never know what tomorrow holds!