Subj: Near Miss.
Date: 3/11/00

I was out for a ride, checking out the country side and looking for a CRX when.....I came upon a pickup truck (that was traveling the same direction) that was swerving from one lane to the other. I knew there would be an accident, it was just a question of when. I pondered taking a different road, but the other side of me said I should do something to help. I followed the truck for several miles flashing my lights and waving to on coming traffic to get off the road. The pickup driver would slow down, almost stop, then start up again. Sometimes he traveled on the opposite side of the road for a quarter to half mile before drifting back to his own side (I thought he was drunk). He put about 10 cars off the road. A minivan almost had a head on collision but swerved to the opposite side just in time. I tried calling 911 from the car but didn't get a timely response so I was thinking about passing the truck and waving the on coming cars off the road or using my car as a blockade to force him off the road. After seeing all the cars that made it by that had children, it was a case of me getting hurt or a bunch of kids dying. As I waited for the next open spot to pass, a tractor trailer came over the hill, slowed some and sounded his horn. I knew this was it as the pickup started to drift towards the semi. I backed off a little watching the event unfold with a sense of relief that the situation was going to be neutralized. The semi swerved to his side to avoid a head on, but the trailer jacked-knifed around and struck the pickup smashing the truck so hard that parts started flying like feathers from a smashed pillow. I thought the semi was going to go into the field and over the bank. Somehow he managed to get it back on to the road except now he was bouncing out of control headed directly at me! My emotions went from a sense of relief to an "ah shit" in disbelief of the situation that I had just gotten into. There was a steep bank to my right so if I went towards it I would rollover and go into the semi. So I accelerated hard (Honda takes good care of me) missed a head on with the semi. The semi was now correcting back to his own side in an attempt to miss the SUV behind me, so his trailer whipped around again and I just missed that collision by inches. The trailer did hit the SUV behind me slamming the SUV backwards deploying his air bags. I jammed on the brakes and stopped before hitting the smashed pickup.
I ran up to another on coming car, that just stopped short of the accident, and requested that he stop other traffic from coming over the hill and colliding into the accident scene. The man in the pickup was bleeding and hanging half out of the truck. I went back to the SUV and he was getting out stunned but only a few cuts. The semi driver was OK and checking on everyone else. The State Police, Fire Dept., and ambulance arrived and extricated the pickup driver from his truck (they didn't expect him to live). To make a long story shorter, Shrapnel flew all around; above me, left and right! But it never touched the car! Pretty fancy footwork, huh! All and all, just another day in my life. :-)