Driving in Searcy will kill me one day.

Friday morning I was headed back to my house after dropping Mike off on campus. I was about to turn right, with a green light, but had I done so, I'd have caused a four-car accident, even though I had the right-of-way. Lovely, eh? That was nothin'.

Later in the day, I'd gone to pick him up again, and coming home, it started to pour down rain. The road I was on curves, and there were two vehicles in the oncoming lane. The one in front turned left at a spot that is particularly sharp. They made a wide enough turn that they did not cut the corner. The truck behind them turned too, but cut the corner and slammed into the car, making it spin completely around. I saw that coming and had started to brake, and found myself hydroplaning. I came to a stop behind the truck (and luckily, I didn't hit anyone.) A black man had been driving the car, and got out as I rolled down my window to politely ask if he'd like me to stay and witness. He spat out "YES! PLEASE!" in my direction and then went into a tirade and cursing and threats. His wife/girlfriend got out then and tried to calm him down. In the mean time, four or five Hispanics poured out of the truck. The black man started in their direction about the time that Harding security showed up (the accident took place on the outskirts of the campus) and took control of things. Thankfully, the security officer was one of the retired PD officers, and not one of the students. He talked to the Mexican guys and then to the man and woman from the car, and then came over to me. I told him what I'd seen, including the way everyone had acted immediately after the wreck. He said that it looked like it was going to be a big mess, because it seemed that no one that was involved had DLs or anything, and the wreck was blocking the road. He was impressed that I had actually stopped, though...he said that people didn't do that anymore, even though you're supposed to stop when you witness an accident like that. He thanked me, and then radioed for the police. When the cop showed up, he talked to everybody and apparently, the man from the car complained that his neck was hurting, because within a couple of minutes, an ambulance showed up, too. Whiplash generally isn't felt for several hours, if not a few days, after a wreck. I'd bet money (if I had any money to bet) that he was faking it. Whatever. So...the ambulance crew strapped him onto the back/neck board and loaded him up to take him to the hospital. That made me mad...there was nothing wrong with him that a bag of ice wouldn't have cured, but he took up room and materials from an emergency crew just to try to get more money out of whatever settlement he's going after. I just don't think that's right. Anyway...after I filled out some paperwork for the cop, he let me leave, and I went on back to the shoppe to finish out the day.

Tonight, after dinner with my parents, I told them about all that, and they said "Huh...that must have been the wreck that was in the paper today." They pulled out the front page and there was the car, the man on the gurney, and the two firemen and two EMTs getting ready to load him into the ambulance.



The caption read something like "Emergency crews carefully remove a man from his car after a wreck yesterday afternoon" and then it said something about all the rain. That's BS! They didn't carefully remove him! He launched himself out of that car with a string of f-bombs and swinging fists. Grr.

Oh well. I'm just glad he didn't come out with guns or get any closer to the guys from the truck. Witnessing a wreck was bad enough...I didn't really want to see assault or murder on top of it.