Well, this past weekend, the good ship Kelly Jo and I set sail for Minden NV to do a little time at a family reunion. We were sans bus, and driving our 300.
We went Norte on 395, through the desert and were just past Ridgecrest, heading into the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mtns.. We stopped at the wide spot in the road known as Pearsonville.
There is a Shell station there, that is about it. We pulled into the Shell for a crew rest break (taking a leak). I was waiting for the good ship Kelly Jo (henceforth known as TGSKJ) to come out so we could depart.
I heard a really loud banging noise.. I mean LOUD. I turned to see a semi with a low-boy towing some kind of military painted up trailer/generator looking thinghy. It was a flagged wide load operation. He had been in the Shell, and went out on the frontage road, then flipped a right onto 395.. At this point 395 is a 65 mph divided hwy, two lanes on each side. Mr trucker cut it way too close and ran over the curbing causing all the noise I heard.
As he turned onto the highway N/B, I looked and saw lots of oncoming traffic N/B as well, and kind of thought to myself that he pulled out with oncoming traffic way too close, especially with a wide load heavy load.
As he started flipping up through the gears going North, he disappeared on the other side of the Shell, and I couldn't see him anymore.
The next thing I heard was some odd screeching, grinding and crashing noises!
A short moment later I heard a bunch of clanging, banging, and general mayhem, and looked out again... I saw this poor guy towing an Airstream, now going South in the Northbound lanes of 395, and he pulled in front of the Shell.
He explained that when the wide load trucker pulled out onto the highway, the fellow in the #2 lane pulled out in front of him in the #1 lane so fast he couldn't stop in time to avoid collision. He piled into another fellow and when the dust settled I guess he was pointing the wrong way on 395 and didn't want to get run over by other traffic so he drove back to the Shell.
He was damn lucky that the now dragging propane tanks didn't blow. He and his lovely wife were on their way to Mono Village @ Twin Lakes for vacation.
We made sure they were OK, and asked permission to take photographs of his vehicle and trailer. He had no problem with that... He then found that he could not open the door to the Airstream, as the frame was tweaked, and couldn't get his camera out... So we got his address to forward photos....
Here is the damage.
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/4415/crash7ey1.jpg
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/9892/crash9gl2.jpg
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/5775/crash2zm7.jpg
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/2232/crash5og0.jpg
