Stories From the Road: I Used to Be an Atheist

Droopy

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Wed Dec-24-08 08:26 AM
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Stories From the Road: I Used to Be an Atheist

I work 3rd shift hauling automotive parts in western Ohio. The first part of the night I go from Troy (20 miles north of Dayton) up to Toledo and swap trailers with a guy- my loaded one for his empty. Then I come back and I run a short, Dayton, delivery route.

We had a lot of rain move through the area last night and when I got to work in Troy I could see that some of it had frozen up on the parking lot and the truck yard. I didn't have any problems driving my light-weight S-10 to work, so I thought I would be alright in my semi on the road, as long as the road crews were out and the temperature didn't drop too low.

So I hopped on I-75 and headed north. As I made my up through the rainy, Ohio night I saw that the salt trucks were out doing their thing. Nobody was spinning out and crashing. I looked back at my wheels and I could see that they were kicking up a lot of water spray, which usually means that the roads aren't frozen. And my truck's thermometer said it was 33 degrees out. I figured between the temperature and the salt I was going to be alright as long as those two factors remained consistent on my journey up north. I cranked the rig up to 55, the legal limit for trucks in Ohio, but didn't set the cruise control, mindful that road conditions could change quickly.

I got up to Sidney, Ohio, about 20 miles north of Troy and felt comfortable enough with the road conditions to crank up some tunes. I was coming up on exit 94 which has an overpass as well as an on-ramp on the other side. As I was reaching for the radio and almost right under the overpass, I felt the truck slip a little in the seat of my pants. Before I let off the accelerator the back of the tractor started coming around on me, spinning toward the left and pushing the front of the tractor around to the right. It happened so fast that I had no time to react at all. I saw that I was headed for the ditch off of the right side of the road and I just grabbed hold of the steering wheel instinctively.

The truck left the road and went down into a 3 foot ditch. I was probably lucky that the truck stayed upright at this point, but there was more to come. There was a hill that was about 15 feet tall and very steep that was created for entering the highway on the on-ramp. My truck went almost all the way up the hill and I thought I was going to be able to regain control on the on-ramp. But the truck dived back down the slope, back through the 3 foot ditch, and then safely onto the shoulder of the interstate. The truck was still in gear and running at about 25 mph down the shoulder of the road. I was completely stunned at what had just happened, but I put the truck in 7th, got back on the highway and did not exceed 35 mph all the way to Toledo.

I did stop shortly after the "incident" (aka "shitting your pants in terror") and checked out the truck. Lots of grass and mud, but no damage. I am very fortunate that I did not hit anyone and that the truck stayed upright- maybe even lucky to be alive.

Yeah, I've been an atheist for a long time. I think I'm going to go to church this weekend. Per-raise Jeez-us-ah and pass the communion wine!