A grim sight greeted me ...
... as I drove home from work yesterday. Coming down the mountain from Deep Gap on 421 I rounded the great curve, the last one before the road begins to straighten out and flattens. I suddenly had to brake hard to avoid hitting a line of stopped traffic. Then I realized that there was a line of parked cars on my left and people were leaving their cars and running or walking across the road towards the left side of the highway where traffic was completely stopped. It all had an eerie, almost slow motion quality.
Then I looked left and saw what the problem was. I first thought part of the mountain had fallen into the road because there were mounds of gray colored rock laying there. Then I realized that those weren't rocks but vehicles covered with an ashy gray substance like dirt or ash. I made out an SUV completely off the road and then a tracker trailer rig - or rather its undercarriage and wheels stuck down into a ravine.
There was nothing I could do at that point except get in the way so I drive on by. About three miles down the road I saw the first fire truck and ambulance go by. From there all the way to the Wilkesboro strip I saw more emergency vehicles of every sort heading towards the wreck.
The wreck was horrifying and I don't say that about much. I am sure people were killed. I have checked the news this morning and can find nothing about it. It occurred just a few hundred yards down the road from this accident last month and close to where several other truckers have died since I moved to Wilkes seven years ago.
Since this stretch of 421 was four laned a few years ago speed limits have risen and so has the fatality rate, I think. Now I know why I sometimes see as many as four state troopers stopping traffic. Once you lose control of a semi-truck on that slope it is almost all over.
So let's be careful out there.
UPDATE: On gowilkes.com there is a discussion about the wreck. Apparently 3 people are dead and one other was pinned in a car. A tractor trailer carrying lime was involved, which may explain the powdery stuff I saw. There was at least one other car and perhaps one other. Very bad news.
... as I drove home from work yesterday. Coming down the mountain from Deep Gap on 421 I rounded the great curve, the last one before the road begins to straighten out and flattens. I suddenly had to brake hard to avoid hitting a line of stopped traffic. Then I realized that there was a line of parked cars on my left and people were leaving their cars and running or walking across the road towards the left side of the highway where traffic was completely stopped. It all had an eerie, almost slow motion quality.
Then I looked left and saw what the problem was. I first thought part of the mountain had fallen into the road because there were mounds of gray colored rock laying there. Then I realized that those weren't rocks but vehicles covered with an ashy gray substance like dirt or ash. I made out an SUV completely off the road and then a tracker trailer rig - or rather its undercarriage and wheels stuck down into a ravine.
There was nothing I could do at that point except get in the way so I drive on by. About three miles down the road I saw the first fire truck and ambulance go by. From there all the way to the Wilkesboro strip I saw more emergency vehicles of every sort heading towards the wreck.
The wreck was horrifying and I don't say that about much. I am sure people were killed. I have checked the news this morning and can find nothing about it. It occurred just a few hundred yards down the road from this accident last month and close to where several other truckers have died since I moved to Wilkes seven years ago.
Since this stretch of 421 was four laned a few years ago speed limits have risen and so has the fatality rate, I think. Now I know why I sometimes see as many as four state troopers stopping traffic. Once you lose control of a semi-truck on that slope it is almost all over.
So let's be careful out there.
UPDATE: On gowilkes.com there is a discussion about the wreck. Apparently 3 people are dead and one other was pinned in a car. A tractor trailer carrying lime was involved, which may explain the powdery stuff I saw. There was at least one other car and perhaps one other. Very bad news.
posted by Clemens | 12:50 PM
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