Last week I saw a terrible sight on the way up the mountain....

.... As I drove up past the runaway truck ramp* I first saw police cars and a huge tow truck at the side. Then I could see up on the ramp. There was something crumpled up that looked like it might have been a truck's cab, and the trailer behind it, ripped open at the front as if a maniacal giant had attacked it with a huge can opener. No sign of a driver or ambulance, but it was a sobering sight.

The next day as I drove up I heard on the radio a description of the accident. The driver was killed instantly. This is the second time in just a few years that a trucker was killed in that exact spot. The next time you are in a store, shopping for something like, say, food for your kids, remember the working guys who got it to you.

*NOTE: For those flatlanders like Elliott, a tractor trailor is so heavy that when it starts down a steep mountain grade several miles long, gravity working on so many tons sometimes causes the brakes to burn up or otherwise fail. So huge ramps of sand are piled up at the side of the road in spots so the truckers can pull up on the ramp, the wheels will sink into the sand and the truck will stop very suddenly. Sometimes, as in this case, so suddenly that the trailor breaks loose and crushes the cab. Authorities speculate that the driver was inexperienced with mountain driving and in fact may have been lost.