I Heard the Crash on the Highway

It's been a while, my little blogworld. I am enjoying a vacay now, but broke down to catch up on email, bills, blogs, etc. As much as I am enjoying a great week with my family, I still cannot live down the road trip to Branson. I am still rattled by the events of that day.

I happened to watch the single worst traffic accident in Oklahoma's history, if you believe the Tulsa World newspaper. I was driving on I44, heading to Springfield, MO, to pick up my husband at the airport. My parents were driving I44, also, but they were a distance behind me. The traffic was completely stopped due to a smaller accident on the highway, but I was nervous because the traffic was really piling up and I have a fear of chain reaction accidents, where the cars crash into each other like dominoes. As I watched in my mirror, I saw numerous cars crash together behind me as a giant semi came full force down the highway, smashing on top of cars like a Transformers movie scene. I screamed, panicked, shook, then drove forward slowly, trying to get out of the way. I did not see a white van, like my parent's vehicle, but I did not know if I saw the whole wreck or only part of it.

I just drove and shook, constantly trying to contact my folks in their van. It was definitely one of the scariest moments in my life, thinking about the people that died and wondering where my family was. I knew people had died, because the force of the truck and the sounds and smells were so horrible, I did not see how people could survive. I was buffered from the wreck by about 5-6 cars, plus I was one land over but the wreck went all over the highway and that may not have mattered in the end. After the slowest 15-20 minutes of my life, my dad got through on my cell phone. They were behind the wreck and could not see anything. I was trying to calm down, telling them that the wreck was horrible and that there would be fatalities and that they would be stuck on the highway for quite some time. I was just so happy to hear their voices, knowing that they were no where near the wreck, because I had been entirely too close for comfort.

In the end, 10 people died. I can't believe I saw all of that in my mirror. My girls were concerned about the wreck, but I kept them plugged into the DVD player while I panicked there on I44. They saw nothing, their headphones buffered out all the screeching metal, burning rubber, and horrified faces of everyone around me.

I will be forever grateful that God gave me a buffer from that crash on the highway. I spent about the next hour praying about everything I saw, thanking God that my loved ones were safe.

The vacation was more important because of the close call with that wreck on the highway. Thank you God for my family.