I spent today running through SD and MT. SD went pretty well but about half way across MT I had a very close call. I was on a downhill grade and suddenly saw smoke about a quarter of a mile ahead of me. A big rig swung over to the right shoulder and then quickly back across the highway, rolling over and crashing in the median with the trailer laying across the highway totally blocking the left lane and partially blocking the right one.
I'm hauling a wide load which is not exactly light. I immediately began trying to get my rig slowed down, grabbing lower gears just as quickly as I could manage it without sending it out of control and winding up in the same situation as the one before me. It takes a very long time to get a heavy rig stopped, especially on a downhill grade.
As I was slowing down I swung my rig over to the shoulder to avoid being rear-ended by someone flying down the hill, and managed to bring it to an almost stop just a few feet before reaching the wreck. From what I could see there was at least one car that had been involved in the situation but it didn't appear to be damaged. My best guess was that the rig had started to change lanes, realized there was a car next to him, and over-corrected to avoid hitting it which sent the rig out of control.
The rig rolled over onto it's left side and from what I could see I had serious doubts that the driver survived the crash. The driver's side of the cab was totally destroyed. Not a pretty sight at all.
Normally I would stop and try to assist in situations such as this but being as I had a wide load my stopping on the shoulder would just present an additional safety hazard, and it's illegal to do so with a wide load anyway. At that point I decided that the only thing that I could do to help was to call 911 and get emergency services enroute as quickly as possible. That's what I did.
Needless to say I was a bit shaken by the experience. It was only a matter of a few feet between my calling 911 and actually being involved in the accident itself. Had I not been able to get slowed down enough to safely ease past the wreck in time I would have just been another vehicle involved.
There's a funny thing about adrenaline. While it's rushing through your system you are wide awake and extremely aware of everything that's going on, but once it burns off you crash and are suddenly very tired. I did my last 150 miles feeling very, very worn out.
That was just too damn close for comfort. Things can happen in a heartbeat out here and you have to be constantly on your guard. I'm just damn glad I wasn't any closer to the action when it all went down or I might not be able to type this out right now.