So my wife was rear-ended by a semi on the freeway...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Fact: two days ago, as my wife was driving approximately 45 MPH down I-35W in Fort Worth, with my two daughters (aged 2 years 11 months and 3.5 months) strapped into their car seats, a big rig pulling a nondescript white trailer clipper her right rear corner, spun the car around its front bumper, dropped the car off to its left side, and kept on driving.

Fact: this happened on the up-ramp of an overpass, leaving nothing but an old-school guard rail between the car and the ground 10-15 feet below.

Fact: not so much as a scratch on my wife and kids (save some extremely minor neck tendernes in wife the next day), and after the rescue personnel changed her front left tire, she was able to drive away.

Fact: yes, the bastard kept on driving, as if he didn’t notice he had thrown a Buick sedan off the road, basically leaving my family for dead. A witness to the accident kept chase for a bit, got the license plate number and a vague description of the vehicle (nondescript white cab with sleeper, nondescript white trailer, maybe a reefer, forgot to get the state from the license plate, no description of the driver), then came back to tell the police.

This has been such an incredibly surreal event, we’re still having to tell ourselves that it’s actually happened. Occasional calls from the insurance company have served as a regular reminder.

Opinion: if my wife had been driving a top-heavy SUV instead of a bottom-heavy Buick sedan, that she would’ve rolled. Her parents swear up and down that SUVs are inherently safer than almost any other vehicle on the road.

Opinion: the driver of the semi was probably pulling illegal cargo.

My wife called me on her cell phone minutes after stopping, just after calling 911, to tell me they were OK. When your spouse starts a phone conversation with “we’re OK”, you know something’s wrong. I went through all the emotions within about 30 minutes, and now I’m relieved that my loved ones are safe. I hope they catch and jail the asshole who did this. I just don’t know what else to say about it.

2

Wow. Just… Wow.

Glad to hear your family is o.k.

In addition to the rest of what you wrote, thank goodness for more crash-resistant vehicles, seat belts and good child seats. In bygone eras when such things were unknown, things we don’t like to think about would have happened.

3

I’m glad to hear they are okay. If the plate number was recovered, and even a general description of the other vehicle, it shouldn’t be too hard to catch the other driver. There’s only so many states to check.

4

Illegal cargo or perhaps driving in violation of regs. I would be first inclined to suspect the latter.

5

Too bad the guy that chased did not get better info. Good that all yours are well. Got lucky in that. Yeah, I have those kinds of phone calls too.

6

I agree with you. Any conversation which starts with “We’re OK” is liable to be bad news.

I’m so glad your wife and kids are all right. They must have been terrified, poor things!

Take good care of them and give your older daughter an extra hug and a cuddle for me if she ges scared. Here’s hoping they catch the person who did this.

7

Glad everyone’s ok. It’s possible he really didn’t know he did it. I was once in a Land Yacht known as the ‘63 Pontiac Catalina in a double-right-turn situation. I was in the curbside lane and a big ol’ rig was next to me. He went sort of right over me, tearing a hole in the top of the car and pulling the bumper off the front. Evidently something got caught on his rig or trailer. I was able to drive the car and chase him down and was compensated for it, though he initially denied doing it. But the point is, those trucks are so big, they truly can hit something and not know it. Particularly if your wife’s vehicle was pretty small. He may have been tired, distracted, whatever.

8

Professional Driver here … Relieved to hear that everyone is okay. Please accept my apology for the behavior of the truck driver. There is no excuse for not stopping. (See Below)

NOTE:

(Bolding mine)

Sorry, Kalhoun, and please pardon my language, but I’m calling Bullshit on this whole thought. This kind of shit really pisses me of. That driver knew - there is no way that s/he could not have known! (Unless, possibly, the driver was so wacked out on drugs that s/he didn’t realize they were even in a truck - let alone driving - but I doubt even that!)

I was unable to avoid running over a baby rabbit 3 days ago - I felt bad about that - but I felt every single outside tire on all seven axles go over what was left of that poor little thing after my steer tire crushed it. Hit a vehicle and not know it? Bull.

Professional Opinion: truck driver was in violation of regs, something illegal about the rig or the cargo, or s/he is simply just an idiot. (Sorry, but every profession must suffer its idiot class.)

Hope they catch and hang’em. Giving all us Professional Drivers a black eye.

Lucy

9

Sounds like the driver was stoned, or seriously lacking in sleeptime.

10

I’m glad your wife and daughters weren’t seriously hurt, Subway Prophet. I hope the authorities catch the driver.

11

How awful! I hope they catch the guy. Glad your family is okay. It could have been much worse.

Which brings me to my soap box: People, if you ever witness an accident and you cannot stop, at the very least call the police department of jurisdiction and let them know that you witnessed it. An impartial witness is golden if you’re ever involved in a he-said, she-said situation.

12

I am very glad to hear that everyone is OK. I wanted to mention something that I hadn’t seen in this thread. It would be a good idea to replace the infant car seat as well as the booster/toddler seat. These items can sustain hairline cracks in the bases that make them unsafe for future use. Maybe insurance would cover the cost of new ones?

13

Glad to see that you are o.k.

If the license plate number that was recorded was only of the trailer, that may be harder to trace. Trailers get droped at delivery/transfer points and may never or very seldom get back to their state of registration. The state of Maine used to have a very low reg fee so thousands of trailers would get registered there that never set foot, or wheel there.

I hope your un/underinsured motorist coverage was adequate and that your insurance company is not one of those that cancel your insurance after a claim.

14

Over the summer, my friend was driving on the interstate and an 18 wheeler clipped the back corner of her car, too. She spun across several lanes of traffic, miraculously not causing another accident, and came to rest on a grassy area on the side of the road. The truck didn’t stop.

Police also offered the thought that there was a possibility that he hadn’t known he had hit her, and unfortunately, since everyone was so concerned with making sure my friend was okay, no one got a license number or anything for the truck. He was long gone by the time the police got there.

My question now is, how often does this sort of thing happen?

15

My husband was pushed off the road by a semi doing a lane change. You just don’t fight the big rigs when you’re driving a '83 Ford Ranger.

After coming to a stop in the median (just short of headon into the concrete divider), it was too late to get tag numbers. However, mr.stretch did get on the CB and started bitching to all and sundry about the rig. That’s the only time I miss the CB–we gave it to the boy so he could track log trucks out in the woods before they run him over.

Some drivers (I’m looking at you ex-husband with the billions of logbook violations who is no longer driving, thank Og), don’t take the job seriously enough. Other drivers (tip of the hat to LucyInDisguise) are professionals who deserve much respect for the way they improve our lives. Too bad you always can’t tell which is which until after you’ve been run over.