A Fatal Car Accident
I was driving home from work one day in April of 2002. It was spring in northwestern Pennsylvania, a transition month from the snowy winter season to April shower’s, but far too early for the May flowers. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and the rainfall was plummeting down at 1 to 2 inches per hour. I was driving on State Hwy. 6, which is a two lane road that cuts through the rural areas of farmlands and open fields. I was driving about 40 miles per hour due to the poor visibility of the weather conditions. My wipers were on high speed but the torrential downpour that day made it difficult to see out my windshield regardless.
In the duration of the eighteen miles
I was driving home, I remember a small SUV coming up behind me awfully quick. I didn’t recognize the vehicle until the headlights appeared in my rearview mirror and it got immensely close to my sedan. The driver was tailgating me for a good five miles until he decided to pass me. I let off the gas and let him get around me so he could get back into the right lane as quickly as possible. Once the vehicle swerve back into the lane, it pulled away from me and within a few minutes it was out of sight. It must have been going a good 60 miles per hour which was too fast for the road conditions.
A few more minutes had passed by and then I seen taillights from a distance until I pulled up closer and that’s when I perceived something that would impact my life for a long time to come. The vehicle that rode my ass and passed me minutes before had crossed the center line to pass another moving vehicle and consequently hit an oncoming truck who was driving into the other direction. The vehicles were both smashed in like accordions. I began to panic, reaching for my phone to call 911. When I checked the victims in the car who passed me, I found two teenage males covered in blood, both of them were unresponsive. I then ran over to the other victim in the pickup truck, he was alone, same problem, unresponsive but not as badly covered in blood like the other two victims were. I began to lose myself, tears emerging from my eyes not knowing what to do. No other cars had driven by for at least 10 or 15 minutes. I was traumatized, engulfed by agony and my mental state became paralyzed. Were these victims alive or were they goners? I just waited until a Pennsylvania State Trooper medics arrived on the scene and the medics.
When all the emergency vehicles got there they asked me several questions before allowing me to leave the scene of the accident. I watched all the victims get taken away in ambulances. I kindly asked the medics along with the troopers to inform me on their conditions at some point. I prayed for all of them, in hopes of surviving the crash and snapping out of the unconsciousness they were all in. Finally, I was aloud to leave the scene and about my merry way. My clothes were drenched from standing in the rain and I wasn’t mentally on the right track subsequent to this horrific event.
A few days later, I received a phone call from the Pennsylvania State Police Department wanting to follow up with me and they told me some information I was praying that I would not hear. Unfortunately, all three victims died as a result of too many bodily injuries. The teenagers were both seniors in high school who were preparing to graduate that June. The other man in the pickup truck was a husband and father of three young children. When I was informed of that unwanted news, I lost it and broke down in tears. That was a day that left an impact on my heart and my life. The worst thing I’ve ever had to see in my life and it still saddens me to this very day.