A very bad day. Fatal crash in front of our home.

[nighthawk]

I was supposed to be on the lake this morning but I came down with an attack of acute sinusitis last night. So I was getting up late today. In front of our house is Front Street, a row of buildings between us and U.S. 11&15, then the Susquehanna River. The highway is a 4 lane expressway with a center turning lane and open access, meaning no ramps you just pull out onto the highway. It is the main route between Harrisburg and middle New York state. Very busy.

Well, I am just waking up when I hear the distinct hollow boom of a high speed impact! Kind of sounds like a howitzer being fired inside a barn. I knew immediately from past experience the we had just had a very bad accident but I couldn't get dressed very fast due to my illness. Not 5 minutes after the crash I heard the fire siren go off at the fire station behind our house and almost immediately get shutdown. My neighbor lady used to be a E.M.T. and she watched the accident happen. She sent someone running up the street to get the rescue squad and ran over to the accident.

A man with a loaded roll back tow truck had pulled out right in front of a south bound tractor trailer truck. The truck driver swerved to the left trying to avoid hitting the roll back and knowing full well he would hit the tress head on. Unfortunately the little roll back was caught by the front end of the rig. They shot across the highway, through the guard railing, down the river bank and into the trees. The roll back was smashed between the tractor trailer front end and a tree. The impact was so hard that the roll back bed, with the little green V.W. on it, was torn off the frame of the roll back tow truck then came to rest facing south in the north bound lanes.

When my neighbor got there she said the driver of the roll back, in her words, was "Bleeding from everywhere, fell out of the cab into her arms and had no pulse. He was horribly smashed". The coroner pronounced the man dead at the scene. The truck driver was taken to the hospital. I don't know the victims names yet but my heart is breaking for them. I have seen a few of these. You never get used to them and I hope I never do. I left the scene when they were getting ready to pull the trucks apart. I just couldn't take anymore.

The state police said that the driver of the big rig hadn't broken any laws and was willing to give up his own life to try to avoid the accident. Thankfully there weren't any northbound vehicles when they crossed that highway. My heart is breaking for the victims and their families.

Please folks, slow down, look twice then twice again and be careful out there on the highways.

Here is an article on the accident:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...n_us_rout.html