[Orangetxguy]

In 1979 I went to a training school, called New Equipment Operators Training, to learn "Safe Driving & Equipment" operations, for an oilwell service company. At that school, we were taught, that our first choice, when faced with something like TK was faced with, was to "steer right". The company line was...we can replace the equipment, we can replace a damaged car, we can not replace lost life. For the next 9 years, I never had any cause to "steer right'.

In october of 1988, driving truck for an Oil Company, I was southbound on I-5, passing through Tacoma WA, with an 11,900 gallon load of AVgas100, when I noticed a large group of flashing "blue" coming up fast behind me. I was in the right lane, with a shoulder strip of aboput 6 feet between my truck and a concrete wall. I had reduced my speed to about 40 from the 55 I was cruising at, and had activated my flashers...so everyone behind me understood I was dangerous, when a Camero came flying past me on the rightside, with a police car hot on it's bumper. That Camero clipped the concrete wall, popped across the lane in front of me, and hit a Toyota Camry. The police car, hit it's brakes, went into a broadside slide, in the lane in front of me, and I was standing on my brakes and clutch pedal. I continued driving for a living, Barbara quit the State Patrol and went to work for Bank of America. She could not handle the headlight in the window, and to this day, she does not drive...she makes her husband and kid's drive her. And yes...Barbara, her husband Mike, and I became friends. They both thought I was one hell of a driver...when I always felt that it was God that stopped that truck, not me.
Measurement showed I left 145 feet of skidmarks, and the brake pads were torn loose from their rivets, on 6 of 12 drums (4 axle truck-4axle tariler). The truck had 2,500 miles on it at that time. The truck did not touch the car.

When I came to a stop, you couldn't put a 2x4 between the grill of my truck and that police car. The officer driving it, was frozen. She was sitting in her car, which had stallled out, looking into the left headlight of the truck. Her name is Barbara, and the moment I stood on those pedals, all I could see was my truck, going over that car. I sat in the seat of that truck, with my feet on those pedals for about 5 minutes...when a police officer hopped up on the step and asked if I was ok. When I set the brakes, and got out...that same office, was knocking on the passenger side window of the police car, trying to get the officer to respond to him. He ended up breaking the window, to reach in and shake her.

From that time on, after realizing how bad it could have really been, if thcargo tanks of that truck and trailer had been split open..I promised myself that I would always stop in the lane...because I was not prepared to kill others, before killing someone whom placed themselves in danger.

In 1990, a friend of mine was hit head-on, while climbing a hill in Bellevue Wa, with a full load of gas. The car that hit him, was doing over 90 mph, and after they went to notify the kid's family, whom was watching the clean up of the accident, on the local news, they found a suicide note on the boy's bed. Richard stayed home for 3 weeks, before coming back to work.

In February 1992, another friend was sitting at a stop light in Poulsbo, WA, with a full load of gas on the truck, when he was hit head-on, by a Ford Taurus. That car hit the truck so hard, it knocked the steer axle from under the truck, and the engine ended up sitting on the front end of the Ford. Ron was going through treatment for whiplash for about 3 month's.
When his headaches would not stop, they did an MRI. What they found, was Ron had cancer, that spread like a wildfire, because of the accident. Ron died in early august of 1992. The police determined that the Boy driving the Taurus had fallen asleep at the wheel, and had the cruise control set. He never hit the brakes, and witness'es stated that his head was against the window of the door, when he passed them. Autopsy showed he died of a ruptured anurisum.

Go figure.