Fiction: Allison is dead tired

Bobby had been listening to the police scanner but it was dispatch who alerted to him to the accident. Greg had radioed it in saying he was going to be tied up out on the highway near the main interchange not with an accident as such but because he was a witness. Bobby was just stopping for a coffee so he thought to pick up an extra one as it sounded like Greg was going to be a while.

After leaving the coffee shop, Bobby took the on-ramp west and headed down the highway. By the time he got to the scene there were several police cars in either direction closing the lanes closest the center guardrails. A fire rescue unit was on scene and an ambulance sat with its lights flashing as two paramedics were getting a stretcher out of the back. He took his time following the flow of traffic through the reduced lanes then turned in to park in front of Greg's truck which was ahead of the other emergency vehicles.

"Hey Greg, what's happening?" said Bobby. He handed his colleague the cup of coffee.

"Oh man, did this lady get creamed but good." Greg took a sip of the coffee. "Thanks man."

The two of them stood watching the emergency workers busily moving around the vehicle. Greg said, "I was following this car, not too close, when all of a sudden it veers left into the center guard rail. It clips it at an angle then starts scrappin' it; the side of the car flush up against the metal. There are sparks flyin' everywhere. Eventually it comes to a stop." Greg paused having taken another sip of coffee. "I pulled in ahead of it then jump out to see if the person is all right. The car motor is racing like crazy. It's dark out so I can't see very well with the headlights and all. I run around to the passenger side of the car and then I see a truck wheel has smashed right through the front window on the driver's side. I opened the door to help and thought I was going to puke."

Bobby said, "Fuck man." The two of them stood there for a moment.

"I reached in and turned off the motor which was just screamin'," said Greg. He idly looked around him at the traffic. People had been forced to slow down, funnelled from five lanes into three lanes. This gave them all an opportunity to gawk at the accident although in the darkness there really wasn't much to see. If you did look carefully, you would get a chance to see the truck tire embedded in the car. Considering how odd that would be, how long would it take for anybody to process this image and realise exactly what had happened?

"Dead as a door nail," said Greg. "She didn't stand a chance." Bobby stared at Greg expectantly waiting for him to go on with his story. Greg took another sipped then continued but a little more agitated. "Gee-sus H K-rist. It could have been me. I was right behind the woman. Just a second or two later and that tire would have been coming through my windshield. Fuck me. It's just chance that I'm not getting cut out of my truck."

Bobby looked back at the car. What were the odds? How many times does anybody see a truck wheel embedded in the front windshield of a car? What a crazy thing to have happened. "I wonder where the truck is."

"Who knows?" Greg replied. "I've heard of cases where the truck driver keeps going without the slightest idea that he's lost a wheel. Considering a trailer has multiple wheels on the back just how many wheels could you lose before you noticed something wrong? Hell, it's dark out. How would you see anything?"

A policeman came out of the darkness up to the two of them. "Greg?"

"Yep," said Greg.

"I think we've got everything we need for our report. Nothing else to add. If there's any sort of follow up, we have your number. "

Greg looked from the policeman to the car. "Okay. I'll take off. Thanks."

The cop turned around and walked back to wherever he had come from. Bobby was staring at the car. "It's funny that the car veered to the left. If it had gone right, it would have smashed into the other four lanes of traffic."

Greg nodded. "Yeah. Pure luck all around. It could have been, I guess, much worse."

******************************

Barry picked up his trailer that afternoon. Unbeknown to him, the mechanic had not done a proper job in re-installing the back wheel on the trailer. A lack of maintenance had led to rougher than normal surfaces and while his torque wrench showed the nuts to be tight, their holding power was half of what they should have been. In not having achieved the proper clamping force, the nuts vibrated loose. At a certain point, the nuts gave way and the wheel came off the back axle of the tractor trailer. The truck at that moment was going 70 mph and the wheel rolled forward at the same speed veering slowly out of the lane onto shoulder by the guard rail. After 50 yards, it hit a small obstruction on the asphalt which launched the wheel into the air. The 245 pound object arced over the center guard rail and came down in the far left hand lane of the opposite side of the highway.

Allison was driving home after a dinner with friends. It was dark, traffic was busy but moving along nicely. In her lane, the far left lane she was managing a good 69 mph. By keeping just under 70, she figured there was less of a likelihood of the police wanting to stop her for speeding. She was idly pressing the scan button on her radio looking for something good to listen to.

At precisely 9:42pm, the 245 pound tire moving approximately 65 mph came down on the front windshield of the car moving 69 mph in the opposite direction. The combined speeds added up to the force of over 130 mph. The tire slammed through the windshield and while the dashboard and the roof provided some resistance, the forward motion pushed the bulk of the rubber object into the car hitting the young woman square in the chest. It broke the entire rib cage compressing the thoracic cavity and pushing the lungs and the heart to the back against the seat. The upper portion of the tread pushed under the chin snapping the head back and breaking the neck. A muscle spasm caused the right hand to push the console gear shift from D to neutral and the right foot to jam down the accelerator and become partially wedged behind the brake pedal.

The still moving car veered left onto the shoulder then ran into the center guard rail, the grinding of the metal against metal throwing off sparks. With the transmission disengaged, the car quickly came to a stop due to the friction of the guard rail. The motor was revving flat out, the accelerator being pushed to the floor.

Barry drove on for another hundred miles before stopping at a rest area.

2011-09-26

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