The Life I Helped Save

by6string

179 followers

Updated 9 years ago

About 7 years ago I was truck driving long haul, over the road for a company out of Birmingham, Alabama. I enjoyed some things about driving over the road. I got to make my own decisions, I didn't have a boss looking over my shoulder all the time, I could rest when I wanted to and I never had to drive to work, because I was already there, not more than 4 feet from the steering wheel, but it was totally lonesome, and getting out of the truck at night was a little scary sometimes, especially when you are close to cities where you hear about other truckers being robbed or killed for the few bucks they have in their wallet.

I started driving a truck back in 1997, and all I have done for a pay check since 1997 is drive a truck. I have been in every state in the United States except for Hawaii, (because there's not a long enough bridge built yet to drive a truck there.) I have been in Canada, and Mexico, but I refuse to ever go back to New York City. I am a Country Boy, and do not belong there. Someone said that the reason that I-95 is such a rough road through the Bronx is because of the Extreme Cold in the winter time, but I know different. It's not because of the Extreme Cold, The reason that the I-95 stretch of road that runs through the Bronx is so bad is because of us Truckers tearing that damn road up trying to get the hell out of there. You don't stop once you get unloaded, you hit that I-95 Interstate and do what us truckers call "Hammer Down."

One of my best memories of my life over the road is a little sad and a little happy. I always wander what ever came of the poor lady who's life I helped save on a Friday August night in 2008.

It was about 11:30 at night I was driving through Memphis, Memphis is a place you don't want to get caught in during Rush Hour, but at the same time, there is no city anywhere that you want to get caught in during rush hour. Memphis usually has more traffic on the road late at night on the weekends than it had on this Friday night. I was only about 7 miles away from my exit when I jumped onto Highway 355 to cut through that little corner of Tennessee heading toward my destination in Birmingham, Alabama. I remember feeling well rested because I usually slept through the day as much as I could, so that I could do most of my driving at night when the traffic was lighter. I also loved listening to the Coast to Coast AM show that came on at midnight and stayed on until 4 AM.

On the radio show they would talk about things that were way out there, it was the Twilight Zone for the Radio. Some of the stuff they talked about I researched and found it to be true although it was out of what is normal in my world, but anyway, back to my drive through the corner of Tennessee.

I was just driving along, it was a peaceful night, I had my window cracked a little as I usually did when I drove, so I could feel that fresh air blowing into my face. I remember hearing chatter over the radio, everything was just normal and routine, just like any other night of driving, when I came around a bend and instantly saw a SUV turned over with fire blazing out from under the hood. I quickly Hit the Jake Brake, applied the Brake Pedal, and began gearing down. There was another small car that had ran into the Concrete wall opposite of the SUV, but I later found out that the driver of that vehicle was fine, just a little shaken up.

Everything happened so quickly. There were two other vehicles that had arrived at the scene of the accident just seconds before I arrived, and I saw two men rush out of each of those vehicles toward the burning SUV, they began struggling with the doors trying to get the people out before the SUV became engulfed in flames. I opened the door, jumped out, grabbed my Fire Extinguisher and ran toward the SUV, as one of the men ran back to his car to grab a Tire Tool to help open the passenger side door.

As I got closer to the SUV, I could feel the heat from the fire as it grew more intense flames were barreling out from under the hood. There was no way to find the base of the fire, all I could do is get as close as I was able to, pull the pin on the fire extinguisher, and do my best to put the fire out. I was amazed at how fast the extinguisher ran out of the chemical that it has in it to put out a fire, it went really quick, but it lasted long enough for the other two men to get the people out of the SUV.

The Passenger (a young lady) was hysterical, she just kept screaming the whole time, even when they pulled her over beside my truck, they pulled her there because that was the safest area, I had traffic blocked. The man who was driving didn't fare as well as the young lady did, he had a broken neck, and had died instantly.

The Police, Ambulance, and a couple of Fire Trucks Arrived shortly after we were able to get the people free from their vehicle. One of the Police Officers came to me asking me what happened, and I told him I really didn't know, all I saw was the wreckage after the accident, after all of the questioning was done, I asked the officer what had happened, and he told me that someone in a White Pickup truck had driven onto the interstate traveling the wrong direction, caused the accident, then they took off.

I'm sure it was a Drunk Driver or someone who was under the influence of some kind of drug, I never did find out if they ever caught who caused that accident, but what I would like to know the most is how that lady is doing that we helped save from that burning SUV. I will never forget the look in her face once she calmed down, she just stared into space, as if she wasn't there only existing in her mind somewhere. I'm sure she was in shock, of going through what she went through, almost burning up in her vehicle, and losing someone she loved, just because some asshole made the decision to drive when they probably shouldn't have been driving anyway