We arrived pretty late at the orientation center last night, after being delayed by the accident I saw that routed us in another direction, so I went right to sleep as soon as the truck stopped moving. This morning, I woke Ed up so he'd have time for a little breakfast before spending the rest of the morning in his class. I was still tired, so I decided to stay in bed a few hours more.
When I woke up, the first thing I did was check the news online for information on the accident. This is what I found, including the photos below. The tragedy is that Alejandro Raya, the driver of the tanker, died. He was 45 years old with three children, ages 21, 14 and 12. The driver of the car that killed him, a 23 year old who had ten beers before heading home from the bar, lived. How's that for complete cosmic bullshit? It ALWAYS seems to be the case that the person who caused the accident is the person who survived the accident. And in cases of crashes between cars and big trucks, statistics show that 75% of the time, the accident is the fault of the passenger car, NOT the truck.
Mr. Raya was just doing his job that night, likely not far from home since he lived in Fort Worth. And because someone decided to drink too much and take to the highway, he lost his life. Personally, I don't know HOW you get on an interstate going the wrong way, drunk or not. And I'm sure that 23 year old's life is going to suck from this point forward. But at least he has his life.
Here's a picture of the firefighters tackling the burning truck. As you can see, the tires have burned off and all that's left of the trailer portion is the ladder that allows the driver to climb up to the top of the tanker: More pictures from the scene can be found here.
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1 YEAR AGO: More Than Halfway To A World Record
2 YEARS AGO: When You Need Your Hump Fixed, This Is The Place
3 YEARS AGO: The Flight, The Hotel, The Walk And The Sleep Deprivation
4 YEARS AGO: A Lot Of Beauty, A Little Citrus And A Mini Moo
5 YEARS AGO: Shorn
4 comments:
What a terrible tragedy. My sincere condolences to the entire Raya family for their loss.
My condolences to the Raya family.
I'm just a "regular" driver but I had first hand experience with a drunk driver who hit me in a parking garage a few years ago. She was shit-faced drunk with an open bottle of booze on the front seat. She hit me while flooring it in REVERSE, left me there and then proceeded out the garage and striking my car. When the cops caught up with her a few miles away they discovered: 1) her breathalyzer showed she was more than 3X over the legal limit, 2) she was driving with a suspended license and 3) she had numerous drunk driving arrests in her past. I had to have surgery on my knee and it never fully recovered. Went to her sentencing and she got 1-3 years BUT only did 6 months for "good behavior". Cops told me it's only a matter of time before she kills someone.
ANONYMOUS: OMG. Your ordeal is horrible. See? That kind of situation is just UNACCEPTABLE. That's the kind of person that needs one of those "blow into the tube before you start the car" cars. All vehicles should have them so no matter which mode of transportation they choose to use, they can't drive it if they're impaired.
So great, cops shake their head and say someday she'll kill someone, probably also said you should be greatful you're alive, but you wouldn't have had to deal with ANY of that if the person was taken off the streets. The sentences for drunk driving, especially in the case of an injury or fatality, should be much more severe.
Hope you heal fully in time and have no residual pain or annoyance from the accident. Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting!!
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