Monday-morning wake-up call

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I imagine many readers will have already taken note of the horrifying video of the Rona Williams’ Renault Clio hooked sideways to the front bumper of a big Arclid Transport cabover running at highway speeds on the UK’s A1 freeway for a minute or more before the rig’s driver noticed he’d been involved in an accident, as reports have said.

If you haven’t seen that vid — taken from another motorist’s phone, it looks like — it can be viewed here along with a story about the accident. While the circumstances have not become exactly clear — how exactly did Ms. Williams car get there? — Ms. Williams herself has said the initial collision happened just after she’d merged onto the freeway. I imagine you’ll take a little extra-special care around on-ramps from today forward. The scene is a doozy, no doubt, the stuff of truck drivers’ nightmares.

On a related note: I wrote about Ben Carpenter, a wheelchair bound young man with muscular distrophy, in the October 2007 edition of Truckers News; Carpenter got lost in a rig’s blind spot below the hood while crossing a street too late in Michigan. When the light the rig was waiting at turned green and it moved forward, it turned Carpenter forward and pushed him down the road in his wheelchair for several minutes before the rig’s driver was alerted. Neither he nor Williams were injured in the events. 

Carpenter’s story spawned much in its wake, from satirical news to the quite real marketing events of his motorized wheelchair’s manufacturer, Invacare. This is of course not to mention the relief of his parents and all who know him. And the truck driver. Here’s wishing you an accidentless week, in any case.     

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