Flashback... 5 PM the previous day.

"Somebody better have died." One of us said.  Now that I look back on it, it really doesn't matter who said it, but the words will remain engraved in my soul.

            Traffic was completely stopped, it had been as soon as we got on the Centerville onramp.  A couple of cop cars slowly made their way around the gridlock via the shoulder.  Next came a fire truck…  then the ‘oh shit’ factor kicked in when a med-evac chopper flew over us.

            It took what seemed like an eternity to make our way through Centerville.  Matt and Tim kept on making jokes about getting out of the car and walking and hitting on the chicks in the surrounding cars. 

            They were watching the garbage on the side of the road.  “If I were homeless, I’d be set,” Matt said after finally spotting the piece that’d complete the garbage outfit.  Time slowly crawled by until the point where I had to merge left, all the way left.

            Flashing police car lights filled my entire field of vision.  A lone semi was a little ways down the road.  On the left side of the road, a state trooper used a piece of surveying equipment to get precise data of the ‘incident’. 

            There was a beige car, I think, that had been pretty badly trashed.  It looked like the driver suddenly realized traffic came to a halt, and there was no way to stop in time.

            Somewhere around 20 people were gathered to the left side of the semi.  Under the truck was about ½ of what was a sedan about 30 minutes ago.  Any passengers had to be dead, horribly crushed. 

            The people crowded around the driver door were obviously trying to save the poor soul, the ‘survivor’.  A chill unlike anything I’ve felt before traveled up my spine.  At that moment, I prayed (I don’t know to whom, if God exists, he obviously abandoned someone) for the life of the person whose life was draining before my eyes.

            Horrible people had parked their cars on Frontage Road (it runs parallel to the freeway) to watch someone slip away.  Perhaps curiosity pulled them here to gawk and observe this morbid event… it didn’t matter, someone was near-dead.  People make me sick.

            As I drove pas the end of the scene, I noticed one officer with a big video camera and I thought to myself, this is going to be a manslaughter investigation.  The semi driver was obviously at fault… but I doubt he’ll see one day of jail-time.  You take away human life and you get a slap on the wrist… figures.

            The whole rest of the commute was a lot quieter than usual.  The rest of the evening remained a dreary mess.  I had hope for the life of the poor driver of the car…

9:14 – My Metrocall pager

            “ACCIDENT: Fatal Accident on I-15 near Centerville causing delays lasting several hours…”

            What did the poor driver do to die like this?  I’ll hear details about this on the news… I doubt anything good will be reported.