The car was upside down.
Yesterday afternoon, on the way into town, I came upon a wreck being worked by WP’s finest.
A good ole boy was leaning on what would be the hood if the car was right side up. I don’t know what you call the bottom of the car under the engine. Maybe it isn’t called anything. I’m not a mechanic.
Now, I don’t know if this good ole boy was the driver, but the look on his face said it was his car.
The highway was lined with emergency vehicles; five police SUVs, two ambulances, and a fire truck. There was an officer in the middle of the S curve, showing us the palm of his hand, and those of us driving up to the place of the wreck assumed that he wanted us to stop.
I came to a complete stop and grabbed my cell phone. The car was facing opposite the way it was going before it wrecked. And it was upside down, as I previously mentioned. How could I not take a picture? It looked like someone tried to somersault the car but didn’t quite make it.
Would it be illegal to set up a trail cam beside the highway? I have to know how that kind of wreck happens.
Fast forward to last night at about 10:00 p.m. I went to town to get something for my wife. It was a quick trip. I was gone for about ten minutes.
Behind our house, there’s a creek bed. It runs from East to West. A road runs through it, North to South, and that road goes right beside our house.
When I say the road runs through the creek, I mean there’s a “bridge” made up of concrete spanning the gap. Pipes are embedded in the concrete, allowing the water to pass through from one side to the other, which prevents the water from covering the road. The length of this concrete mass is about 20-30ish feet long.
Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s called a bridge. I know that it bridges the span of the creek so that we can get from one paved road to the other.
The creek is dry until we have abnormally heavy rain. Then it will have water for a day or so.
The portion of the creek behind our house has about a six feet drop to the creek bed on the side of the bridge.
I was coming home from my little errand. I saw a dually flatbed diesel truck parked on the other side of that concrete bridge. The driver’s door was wide open. I kept my eye on it until I got closer, then my eyes were drawn to the creek bed on the side of the bridge.
There was an SUV sitting in the creek bed, facing East.
I don’t know which way the SUV was heading — North or South — but on that bridge, somebody got a hankering to turn Eastward.
A bridge is not a good place to get a hankering. It’s best to hold your hankering until you get to solid ground.
If someone turns their blinker on whilst traveling across your normal everyday bridge, you may want to get your life jacket out. Or say, “Oh hey, this is my stop.” And exit the vehicle as quickly as possible.
Now, it just makes sense to go straight when you’re on a bridge, no matter how close it is to the ground. Not turning seems like simple logic to me.
I wouldn’t even want to do a U-turn on a bridge. I’d keep traveling until I found a good, solid, level piece of ground and turn around there.
Friends, I never thought I’d have to say this, but don’t turn on a bridge. It never “turns” out well.
to the quite possibly inebriated,
– Caleb
caneymountainblog.com 