On my way into work yesterday (1am) I see flashing lights in the eastbound lane ahead (I'm heading westbound). I slow down to see a car flipped and mangled guardrail. I tried to get off at the next exit and shoot around to head east, when out of nowhere, this little silver Dodge Neon comes up like a bat out of hell, doing about 80 mph right beside me which makes me swerve and miss the proper exit. So I have to head down to the next closest exit.
I speed up a little (OK..it was 70) and I keep a little pace with the silver car but I drop speed when I get to the exit I need. As I'm going down the exit to head eastbound, something catches my eye and I look up to see dust coming up and filtering the light from the lamps on the freeway. I thought to myself, "Someone drove off the road." But I had committed to getting off the exit.
I shot around and headed back to the flipped car. I was there about three minutes when a little voice told me to head back west to where I had exited the highway previously. As I'm walking back to my explorer, a dump truck pulls next to me and the driver yells out, " THERE'S A SEMI WITH A CAR STUCK UNDER IT!! HE DOESN'T KNOW IT'S THERE AND HE'S DRAGGING IT !!!!"
Well, I guess that that was the dust I saw! I shot back to head westbound again. This time I hit a little traffic but I manage to pull off the side of the road. I walk about a half-mile to see a semi, charred in the left back with a little Silver Dodge Neon stuck in trailer. The Neon is crumpled and burnt.
I got great pics of the ax and Lifeflight and the victim being worked on. Also great sound from three of the four guys who stopped their cars and trucks to help rescue this woman. They actually pulled a door off the frame of the car to get to her. One guy dove into the car while it was on fire to undo her seatbelt. Thing was, the car was on fire inside the drivers compartment. All the rescuers went without a scratch.
I'm kicking myself because I went to shoot the first ax. Had I not seen it, I would have seen the Neon crash into the truck. And the worst thing was, I had to shoot it hand held because my sticks were in the shop getting a leg lock replaced.
[ July 24, 2004, 09:05 AM: Message edited by: Newshutr ]