While on my way home from Atlanta at on Sunday night, I rolled up on an
accident scene just one mile from my exit .
I had gotten there before the police and fire , so I stopped to make sure
everyone was alright and to try and keep others from crashing into the
wreck .
what had apparently happened was that an Overnite Transport tractor trailer
(the ones that pull two tandem trailers at the same time) had gotten
together with a ford Aspire (I always wondered what it was aspiring to be)
and the rear trailer had become unhitched and flipped over against the
guard rail , but in the lane of travel .
So anyway , no-one was hurt , but I waited for the cops and the fire dept.
and totry to make sure that no-one hit the wreck since it was dark , rainy
and in heavy fog . A few came extremely close .
My R/T was parked directly accross from the wreck on the shoulder .
So the cops and the fire dept. get there and they start pokin' around and
figure that this guy was hauling several drums of Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) .
They immediately ordered everyone to get back from the wreck at a distance
of no less than 700 feet in every direction . I was told that I could not
retrieve my truck , but that I had to wait .
They had to call a HAZMAT team from a neighboring town that was about 20
minutes away .
Don't ask me why , but I could still see the scene from where I was and we
(myself , a couple of Firemen , and a State Trooper) did not see ANY
activity until about 5am .
I was worried that if there was a leak that the acid would do something to
my paint or someone would hit it with a piece of equipment when they tried
to up-right the trailer .
They finally allowed us to go to the scene at 5:30am to get our vehicles
and leave . Unfortunately my flashers had been going and my parking lights
had been on and the battery was dead . Then they didn't want to jump us off
because they feared either causing an explosion or damaging their equipment
from a power surge !!
FINALLY......they told us we could jump it off and I left at about 5:45am !!
When I left , they were still waiting on an EPA team from Atlanta to arrive
and the interstate was still closed in both directions .
It finally opened up at about noon that day .
So I stop to help someone at about 11:30 , and I am kept there until 5:45am!!!
Needless to say , I did not go to work on Monday .
But , ya know , I would still stop to help someone ......I would want
someone to stop for me .
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Hilton III
Black 1998 Dodge Dakota R/T Club Cab
Charter Pipeline......the Next Wave.....
http://www.mindspring.com/~hemi/jbd1.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:10:59 EDT