Belmont Club

By Richard Fernandez

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Who saved GI Joe?

July 14, 2009 - 3:32 am - by Richard Fernandez
DougRek
2009-07-15 09:44:52

I was in the left lane of a 3-lane, divided Interstate near Sheboygan, driving a Dodge RAM pickup….bright, sunny day, 83 degrees, windows open. Saw that I was closing on a car ahead, also in the left lane. Moved one lane to the right to pass it. Recognized instantly that it was not going in my direction….it was coming toward me, coming the wrong way. It moved over so that it was once again in my lane. I move further….it tracked my movements. Mind you, I was at 55 mph, and it (later proved to be an Olds Firenza, half the weight of my truck). The moment of collision was on a bridge, the abutments restricting me from moving any further to my right, and the Olds had steered to meet me head-on. I was on the brakes hard, the Olds never braked at all. The final instants of that collision, which I recognized was inevitable, were in slow motion, digitally moving from frame to frame, in black and white and grays…..all sense of color ended. I cannot recall any noise, there was no apparent motion of my body, and I watched the air bag deploy. The Olds disappeared under my truck, ended up across the highway, still headed the wrong way, but reduced to half its original height, the driver dead and dismembered. But it is those instants of incremental, digital, soundless, slow motion, void of color that remain with me to this day.