truck crash

[danny_galaga]

took my N64 to a friends place last night. by the way, 1080 is a bloody awesome two player game! anyway, at about 3:30am he was a bit too drunk to play well anymore (and he kept dropping the controller on the ground). So i'm heading back home on the motorway and out of the corner of my eye i see something rather surreal- a truck (prime mover and one trailer) had gone on an exit and, the driver obviously asleep kept going straight so he was now carreening into the scrub parallel to the motorway. the truck hit a few ditches and things and the prime mover part became airborne, still dragging the trailer behind it before crashing into a muddy ditch. holy....!

i actually drove past it before i realised what had happened. i pulled over and reversed back (on the shoulder). i was fairly calm ( i can get a bit emotional in situations like this) but i dialed 111 instead of 000! the driver was half falling out of the cab when i got to him. at that stage i was more worried about his passenger because he didnt seem to be moving but after a short time he managed to get out ok. and actually even though the driver was moving first, he was in a worse way. from what i could tell could be spinal or internal organ damage. anyway, i tried to get him to stay where he was lying on the ground and i asked him if he was ok (obviously not but i had to say something).

i had to run 100 metres or so back the way i came while on the phone to see which exit it was. but you know, theres only the one road called a motorway around brisbane, and i told them just past exit 16, but two ambulances and a cop car got lost looking for it! :x

an off duty ambulance guy had stopped as well to help and we grabbed some blankets and things from our cars to keep the guys warm. the passenger by now was looking not so grim. he didnt really speak any english so it was hard to tell for sure. the driver by now was saying he was hurt but he was in shock and kept moving around. i asked him if the battery master switch was off and it seemed he was able to turn that off so that was good- would hate for the thing to go up in flames. he managed to call his boss. who turned up before the ambulance! he started poking around the truck. i assumed it was to check the damage, which like its driver wasnt showing but it was fairly wedged into the ditch. the bosses offsider told me it was only a year old. the off duty ambulance driver pointed out the windscreen which i hadnt noticed yet. it was really smashed- we thought because the driver had hit it. probably not wearing a seatbelt. if so, he probably would have some spinal injuries.

the ambulances came, and a fire truck, and finally the police. i had to stay to give a statement. it was then that i realised what the owner of the truck was up to. i overheard one of the cops say to him something like 'wheres the logbook? you were the last one in the truck'. sneaky so and so...

anyway, i gave a statement and finally got home just after 5am. i am so glad that the truck had stayed upright and also that there was no fire.

[DaOld Man]

Wow man, good thing you werent involved in the actual accident. (Other than witness).
You said your friend was drunk, dont know if you were drinking.
I know something like that will sober you up, but I would have hated to talk to the cops with beer on my breath.
So do you think they were hauling illegal stuff? (drugs, stolen goods, etc).

[danny_galaga]

Wow man, good thing you werent involved in the actual accident. (Other than witness).
You said your friend was drunk, dont know if you were drinking.
I know something like that will sober you up, but I would have hated to talk to the cops with beer on my breath.
So do you think they were hauling illegal stuff? (drugs, stolen goods, etc).

i think the only thing dodgy was how many hours the driver had been working judging by the cops stern words to the owner. and no, i abhor drink drivers. i had the equivalent of maybe five drinks over about a 7 hour period. the one time i thought i might be close to the limit and i got breathalysed, it came back as zero! so i obviously must be erring on the side of caution...

[Dartful Dodger]

Good job on your response.  I witnessed the same thing, but there wasn't an exit ramp.  The truck was driving next to me, then it just pulled over and dropped out of sight.  I assumed he was going down an exit ramp.  When I realized there wasn't an exit I stepped on the brakes and pulled over.  In my rearview mirror I saw every car on the express doing the same thing.

A difference between my situation and yours was that I was drunk.

I figured enough people were stopping so there was no point in me getting a DUI for trying to help so I drove off.

The area the truck drove off was a steep drop over a forest preserve. 

I didn't hear anything about it on the news or see any barriers or debris at the spot of the accident.  We were going over the speed limit and the expressway was raised about three stories so it would have been a real mess and I’d guess the accident would have been fatal.