You should be dead, Part 1

What started out on a clear and sunny day as a typical UPS delivery day suddenly changed on HWY 59, ten miles south of Texarkana. I came upon the rural traffic light at the Domino, Texas community intersecting to turn left to go to the International Paper Mill, my first and largest delivery stop of the day.

While waiting for the traffic light to turn green, I noticed the only other car, which was heading north, opposite my way. Coming up behind the car and gaining my full attention was a tractor-trailer big rig pulling a chemical tanker directly in front of the car. I'm thinking for a split second that this guy in the tractor-trailer rig is going to run this red light in a rural area on a divided 4-land highway with a 55mph limit at that time.

That big truck kept coming closer and closer, and within 20 feet of the car, the tractor-trailer driver tries to make an avoidance maneuver to keep from plowing into the back of that car. The truck's left-swerve wasn't enough, and he clipped the rear left of the car, punching it into the intersection. The truck's right front wheel so easily ran over the back left side of the car, it seemed no more than hitting a speedbump for him.

It crushed the car like you would stomp an aluminum can with your foot. The truck driver instinctively hit the brakes, locking up the trailer's tires, sending the tanker trailer into a jackknife, sliding on its own momentum to the right, hitting the car squarely, running up the back and over the top. The base of the car peeled from the top, and was dragged another 50 feet down the highway.

The truck itself further slid into a grassy area off the right shoulder of the north-bound lane, coming to a full stop and luckily remaining upright, and avoiding a chemical spill. But then my eyes went back to the car and what had to be a macabre scene.