Built Ford Tough....and wear your seatbelt !

[Andrew Walker]

Soooooo.....anyone hear about the ECL transport truck hitting the bridge just south of Molson Park on 400 North about 5 am ,August 22/05 Monday morning (Barrie,Ontario) ? Me neither....technically, I was the first on the scene about 30 seconds later . Driver was hauling a steel trailer built for hauling scrap, hit the bridge, jack-knifed into the ditch after the bridge and left the entire 53' section of the right side of his trailer in the slow lane. I discovered this while chewing on my cheese bagel at 100 km/h (62 m.p.h.)....in the slow lane. Yep, crested the hill in the pitch black, went "Oh...not good", then went Dukes of Hazzard. Front wheel clipped the trailer side and flipped me onto my drivers side and on I went down the fast lane for about 300 Metres (or yards---close enough) into/onto the centre guard rail. Climbed out the rear window and ran like Hell down the road to avoid the next guy arriving on scene. Luckily, he was pushed into the guard rail by a minivan before he had a chance to collide with my sitting duck truck. A few scratches, couple of bruises and some glass bits to come out and I'm now at home. Anyone need any Ford truck parts ? Not many good parts left, mind you. As an aside, I decided to check my lottery tickets when I got home and won $57.80 on the weekend's 6/49 draw. Man, what a rush !

Remember....hug your kids if you got 'em !

Andrew....

[Mac Leod]

hope you thanked the good Lord...seems he did you a a big favor on that day...too bad about your truck...at least you are ok...

Mac Leod

[Andrew Mackey]

Your truck looks better than mine - In April, I had an 18 wheeler switch lanes in front of me on I-287 here in NJ. I was doing 65-70 MPH, he was doing about 40. He decided he liked my lane better and switched - about 20 feet in front of me! I had enough time to say oh s--t and impacted the bump stop on his trailer, dead on. Everything in front of my S-10 ended up against the firewall and the windsheild, the front wheels and the engine driven into and under the cab. To make things worse, the S-10 skidded to a stop, broadside to oncoming traffic, in the center right lane. Thank God it was the passenger side, as a poor woman in a jeep wrangler (I think), having no place to go with surrounding traffic, broadsided my truck, just as I skidded to a stop from the first impact. The second impact was a billiard shot - her truck stopped virtually at the point of impact, and transferred the kinetic energy to my truck, less the damage done by the impact. The second impact telescoped the passenger side of the cab and bed by 2 feet toward the center of the truck, the passenger door was inside the frame rail by better than a foot State police figured between the 2 impacts, my destroyed truck left a debris feild of about 1200 feet! Thankfully the lady was not severly hurt, she refused medical treatment at the scene. I however spent 5 hours in a trauma center, and 2 months at home recovering. The seat belt helped, but with the first impact, the belts broke at least 3 ribs.and possibly a collar bone. Most of the other damage (more busted bones and bruises)came from the 2nd bang up. The worst thing, was that the 18 wheeler never stopped, didn't even touch the brakes. The police later explained that a mass of 1,800 pounds will have virtually on linear effect on a vehicle that weighs 80,000 pounds. If the driver felt anything at all, he would have thought he had hit a pothole. (I will admit that the right lanes in the area were in poor shape - perhaps his reason for the lane shift. Thankfully you were able to walk away from your mishap.
Andrew