No Driving in the Ditches

 

I remember back my late teens I was working for a construction company. One morning, we’re on the highway, driving to the construction site out of town, and we’re behind a large box truck following a line of traffic that’s backed up because road construction up ahead. We’re just driving along about, I don’t know, 35 to 40 miles per hour, and suddenly, the straight truck shoots off to the right into the ditch and crashes. There were those few milliseconds that we wondered what was going on when we saw the line of traffic had come to a stop. Not paying attention or whatever, the truck driver did not respond or react soon enough, so he turned off suddenly into the ditch to avoid piling into the cars in front of him. We pulled over to the side and stopped and ran to the truck to see what we could do to help. The truck driver had a small gash on his forehead and was obviously shaken. I remember asking what he was hauling (thinking if it was hazardous). I don’t remember what he was hauling but it wasn’t hazardous. That’s all I remember of that event.