Almost Getting Killed

I hate when that happens!

Yesterday I had to go into work for a brainstorming and project planning session for 2007. It was actually a pretty good meeting and afterward we had a great lunch at the Yard House. Getting to and from work is a 23-mile trek down the 210 freeway into Pasadena, which was surprisingly quick going in yesterday and really slow going back. At one point I had to actually get off the freeway and take side streets due to an accident. My mistake was getting back on the freeway.

As I approached the off ramp to my house I moved over into the slow lane (a place you will rarely find me for sure). With about 3/4 of a mile to go I ended up behind a line of big and small trucks, the one in front of me being a medium-sized truck, like a small moving van. As I took my place at the end of this slow-moving line the truck in front of me slowly made its way over to the shoulder. I couldn't see anything wrong with it, but I figured the guy had some sort of problem.

Now the freeway at this point, and all though La Verne in fact, is in a large ditch. La Verne fought the construction of this part of the freeway (which only opened up four or five years ago) for years, demanding that it be below ground level throughout the entire city limits. The city pretty much got what they wanted and the freeway is sunken through the length of the city in basically a large ditch with steep sloping embankments.

The truck in front of me goes right past the shoulder and up the embankment. pitching over precariously. I am looking in my rear-view mirror and moving into the next lane when the truck driver makes a correction and comes crashing back down onto the freeway in front of me, pitched at an angle and riding on only the left wheels of the truck. I am watching him and the mirror as I move over another lane and the truck falls back down on the right wheels (I would have bet he was too far over to stop from flipping completely) and then tips over in that direction, the left wheels now leaving the ground.

I accelerated past, now in the car pool lane as the truck pitched once again over on it's left tires. In the rear-view mirrors I saw the right wheels crash back to the pavement as the whole front end of the truck buckled into the shoulder and the truck slid to a stop.

Scared the shit out of me (figuratively, not literally).

I hate when that happens!