September 23
The magic date...
This day, September 23, has been holding a special meaning for me since 1982. For it is a fact that I could have been dead since then.
The road home had always been narrow and bumpy. It runs along a Fjord offering great views of the mountains.
I was driving a 5t box truck and had just been at the lumber yard for some plywood, heading home.The gravel truck I met was over the median and I steered right to avoid a collision. My truck came over the edge of the black-top, a 3inch drop. and I went into the ditch. Frantically I tried to get out of it, managed, but then careened over to the left side of the highway, got off the pavement there, went across the rocky beach and hit a massive boulder. The impact was enough to lift the back of my truck vertically into the air. The front windshield fell out and I followed through the opening. The truck rolled over me and went into the sea, where it came to rest at low tide with the engine still running. When I got to myself I looked up and around and what I saw truly puzzled me. I was draped upon the broken windshield and my eyeglasses lay right in front of me. I stood up and tumbled up the slope to the highway, where a car stopped for me.
A quick check at the doc's office revealed no broken bones no blood, no nothing.
The only pic I have of my truck is a dias slide which I cannot reproduce here. But you'd never believe that the driver of that truck would have made it out of there alive, not speaking of without a scratch.
When my girl friend picked me up in town we passed the site of the accident. A company had been called to get the truck out of the water, which by now had risen to the windows. In order to tie a wire to the vehicle they had to rent a boat!! After the truck came back onto the road they discovered a dead fish inside!!!!
The gravel truck driver never stopped. After he was identified he denied having been across the median and I had no witnesses.I some times think of this incident when driving our big motor home, and it makes me a real careful driver!
So please, stay between the ditches!
