Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Beware the Fog

I'm going to tell you a true story that happened to a family member of mine a few months ago. Could be a sibling, cousin, in-law or out-law, but let's just stick with I am related to this person. And just for the sake of clarity, we'll call him or her "Exhibit A".

Exhibit A works in an industry that requires long and odd hours. Many times, it is very late at night or into the early morning hours when Exhibit A leaves work to drive home.

On this particular night, it was very foggy and visibility was poor. Exhibit A has to travel through some windy and hilly terrain to reach home. At one point, Exhibit A saw a truck in the left hand lane and it was not moving. Exhibit A figured that the truck was trying to pull a u-turn in the middle of the interstate, so Exhibit A pulled into the right lane to avoid hitting the truck.

A little ways past the truck, Exhibit A hit something in the road and pulled over to check it out. There was a lady in a minivan behind Exhibit A who also hit what they assumed to be a deer. She had said she saw Exhibit A's car hit something but was too close to swerve or change lanes, so then she in turn hit "the deer".

When the lady and Exhibit A looked closer, it was a body. A presumably dead body of a flannel wearing dude. In the middle of the Interstate.

When the police arrived at the scene, they had to get a hoist to pull Exhibit A's front end of the car up and survey the damage. The police picked stray bits of flannel shirt and other oookies from the undercarriage. The police suggested that Exhibit A and the other driver take their vehicles to an all night car wash and take care of business at hand.

Apparently, the body was a passenger in the truck. The driver had walked to get help after the truck had rolled several times and ejected the passenger who became road putty. Sad times.

Shortly thereafter, Exhibit A traded the vehicle and bought something new. Beware of low lying bodies on foggy mountain roads.

12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Um. The first phrase to come to me is "That really sucks".

    How horrible for Exhibit A. I hope they are okay after that.

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  3. OH MY GOD. That is awful! One of my best friends was the dude that stepped out infront of that semi on 64 back in Nov. of last year. (right up there near you)
    That drudges up some awfully fresh memories. As sad and devistated as I am about it, I feel so so so so so bad for the UPS driver that hit him. He'll never be the same I'm sure.

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  4. Ooh, ick!ick!ick!

    Was there a crime involved?

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  5. I don't know anything more about the case - I just kinda figured with it being around 3 am, either drinking or tiredness was involved and the driver lost control of the truck.

    BTW, I found an ironic bit of humor in the situation - not funny ha ha, but just "that is just too plain weird" - gallows humor, if you will.

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  6. Holy schnikes!!! That would suck! It is kind of funny in a "who'da thunk" kind of way, but that could seriously mess with a person's psyche. I hope Exhibit A is OK.

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  7. Creepy! My first thought would be that I hit him first, and I'd go off the deep end. I swerve to miss already dead animals in the road. I just can't imagine...

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  8. ooooo ick ick ick. I am sorry for Exhibit A and the "victim" and his family. But ick ick ick. I think I would be having some serious sleep issues after that one.

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  9. OMG! See what I miss when I'm yukked up!!!

    My sympathies to Exhibit A. I once ran over part of a dead deer. That was enough to skeez me out for days. I can't imagine if it were a person!

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