Y’know, I was all gung-ho about Hurley blasting through the trees and foliage in a VW minibus last night. This did not mean that I wanted a couple of kids to do a dramatic re-enactment of it at 2:30 in the morning.
Crawford County’s finest showed up en masse to rescue the driver who was trapped in the vehicle. Me, I just wandered around, hoped everyone was OK, wondered what shape my fence was in, and took pictures and video. Don’t know why I did video – you can see it here if you like, just standard accident scene news video. Once a newsie, always a newsie. You saw it here first.
Sheriff’s deputies search the vehicle after its driver is pulled out.
The ambulance takes the rescued driver away.
I kinda gasped when I saw that this tree had been clipped in a big way. I returned to the scene – i.e. walking up my driveway and then about 100 feet due east – to investigate by daylight.
This looks like where they left the street…
…went through the grass…
…clipped the tree…
…hit a T-post and tore off a bumper…
…and took out this whole section of fence. Thankfully we’re not presently running horses on this land.
Another view of where the SUV flipped over.
Where these kids lucked out: this section that they went through was barbed wire. At the speed they were going, their vehicle just snapped through it. (And their insurance can pay to replace it.)
Why these kids lucked out: a few more feet, and they would’ve had their choice of trees to wrap themselves around, or they could’ve hit the pipe fence, which could easily impale or decaptitate someone at that speed.
I’ve outlined the big “ranch entrance” gate to show how close all of this is to the house itself (in the foreground).
My driveway after nearly every rescue vehicle in Crawford County did a three-point turn in it. I forsee a future involving me, a shovel, and copious back pain.
Xena’s just glad that it’s all over and nobody died. And so am I.
As much as I razz the first responders about the driveway, all of them with the exception of the sheriff’s deputies (who showed up in a squad car) are volunteers, who have to go from home to the fire station and then to the scene. With that in mind, they got here in record time after I made the 911 call.
More excitement than I want at three in the morning.