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By Tom Boyd
Headline RSS FeedThe six-car slide-out
February 26, 2008 — The pickup truck in front of me had girth, width, heavy metal tool boxes and a look of industrial toughness.
It was also spinning out of control. Wildly out of control. First to the left, where it performed a pirouette off the left-lane guard rail. Then to the right, where centrifugal force whipped the nose around and forced the car across the highway to the right lane. I caught a quick glimpse of two startled passengers. The truck became parallel to the 4-foot-high snowbank at exactly the moment it slammed into it, somehow lifting the car straight up into the air and into the Oreo-cookie-colored snow, upright, just at the moment I drove past.
In front of me, three other cars lay like forgotten relicts of an alpine war, strewn about the right lane. No police yet. A plastic bumper stared up at me from the road, looking eyeless without headlights.
Then, in my rearview, two more cars attempted vehicular ballet. A navy blue Jeep Cherokee spun in slow motion, struggling against the seeming magnetic force of the snowbank but, ever so gently, failed. As the jeep came to a rest perpendicular to the road, another truck arced like a boomerang in the opposite direction and jerked to a stop, unharmed, facing completely backward.
Everyone was OK. Cell phones were already in use. Police were on the way.
Another driver, a woman, had navigated the chaos perfectly, slowly, just in front of the big truck, never losing her grip. Anxious to be clear of other cars I drove past her and saw that she was smiling. Not arrogantly, not self-consciously, but with that way that said: OH MAN that was COOL!
No one was hurt. And I realized that I was smiling, too.
I took a video a few moments later which had a surprise of it's own. Check it out:
2 Comments on "The six-car slide-out"
EHemingway — February 27, 2008
Nice use of the word "girth" Mr. Boyd. You've always like to talk about girth.
Reid — February 28, 2008
Tom, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe CDOT calls that turn the "narrows". Typically when we see large amounts of snow and wind, CDOT will use long range, air powered cannons to instigate snow slides. I like to call that turn "dead man's corner". By the way, shouldn't your hands be at 10 and 2? Safe driving to all.
Reid
