Driving down a stretch of desert road near Tucson, pickup truck in front of me, and we’re cruising through the wasteland at about 60. We’re coming up to a T intersection where the incoming road has a stop sign and we don’t. It’s the only intersection on this road for at least a mile in either direction. There’s a lone car waiting at the stop sign as we approach. It takes us a good 15-20 seconds to get to the T junction, and in all that time the waiting car never moves despite having no traffic in either direction preventing them from turning out onto the road.
As soon as the pickup truck in front of me is past the point of no return, the driver of the car pulls right out in front of him to turn left. He swerves but can’t avoid hitting the front of her car. Fortunately I was closely watching the whole thing unfold so I’m immediately hard on the brakes, but pickup truck driver just had no time to react. The right half of the pickup hits the whole front side of the car and it’s probably doing 50-55 when it hits, because the driver only had a fraction of a second to brake.
After impact the pickup goes careening left across the road and into a ditch, and the car spins like a top, doing a 360+ in-place from the impact force. By the time the car stops spinning I’ve pulled over on the right, and I jump out of my car to help (after making sure the people behind me had stopped!)
I check the car first since it’s closest, and I find the female teenage driver sitting in her seat crying her eyes out. She won’t/can’t answer questions but she’s breathing and sobbing and and there’s no apparent carnage I can see. I move on to the pickup in the ditch which I find has two occupants. I ask “are you guys ok?” and almost immediately feel kinda dumb for asking. The driver has removed a large piece of the dashboard with his forehead, which is now bleeding profusely. But he is able to look at me and snark out a reply, “Do I look like I’m ok?”. Well he’s alive and sarcastic so he’s probably not dying, and the passenger is conscious, so it’s time to call 911 and then try to find pickup truck driver a bandage.
I hang out to give a report to the cops, and they tell me the girl said she just wasn’t paying attention. No idea what could have made her just pause there for half a minute and then decide to go without even looking; this was the mid 90’s so cell phones weren’t really a thing yet. I would have sworn she was trying to murder the people in the pickup truck based on her perfect timing.
Far as I know everybody came out ok, and nobody had to leave in an ambulance, but that was the gnarliest car wreck I ever had front seat tickets to without being involved.
Driving down a stretch of desert road near Tucson, pickup truck in front of me, and we’re cruising through the wasteland at about 60. We’re coming up to a T intersection where the incoming road has a stop sign and we don’t. It’s the only intersection on this road for at least a mile in either direction. There’s a lone car waiting at the stop sign as we approach. It takes us a good 15-20 seconds to get to the T junction, and in all that time the waiting car never moves despite having no traffic in either direction preventing them from turning out onto the road.
As soon as the pickup truck in front of me is past the point of no return, the driver of the car pulls right out in front of him to turn left. He swerves but can’t avoid hitting the front of her car. Fortunately I was closely watching the whole thing unfold so I’m immediately hard on the brakes, but pickup truck driver just had no time to react. The right half of the pickup hits the whole front side of the car and it’s probably doing 50-55 when it hits, because the driver only had a fraction of a second to brake.
After impact the pickup goes careening left across the road and into a ditch, and the car spins like a top, doing a 360+ in-place from the impact force. By the time the car stops spinning I’ve pulled over on the right, and I jump out of my car to help (after making sure the people behind me had stopped!)
I check the car first since it’s closest, and I find the female teenage driver sitting in her seat crying her eyes out. She won’t/can’t answer questions but she’s breathing and sobbing and and there’s no apparent carnage I can see. I move on to the pickup in the ditch which I find has two occupants. I ask “are you guys ok?” and almost immediately feel kinda dumb for asking. The driver has removed a large piece of the dashboard with his forehead, which is now bleeding profusely. But he is able to look at me and snark out a reply, “Do I look like I’m ok?”. Well he’s alive and sarcastic so he’s probably not dying, and the passenger is conscious, so it’s time to call 911 and then try to find pickup truck driver a bandage.
I hang out to give a report to the cops, and they tell me the girl said she just wasn’t paying attention. No idea what could have made her just pause there for half a minute and then decide to go without even looking; this was the mid 90’s so cell phones weren’t really a thing yet. I would have sworn she was trying to murder the people in the pickup truck based on her perfect timing.
Far as I know everybody came out ok, and nobody had to leave in an ambulance, but that was the gnarliest car wreck I ever had front seat tickets to without being involved.