Onlooker

It was a gloomy day - gray sky, no snow. Just the unpleasant drizzle of late winter. Like any school morning, I fell asleep to the dull roar and gentle shake of the moving bus. My nap didn’t last long; we hit traffic, and I groggily peeled open my eyes. “Bad traffic so early? Must have been an accident,” I thought. “Or construction - always one of those on the highway.” The bus was crawling, stopping, crawling, stopping. It didn’t bode well for my nap. I checked the traffic app: our highway was bright red, and bingo, there was an accident a few miles ahead.

I texted my kiss-and-ride friends, “Did you guys pass the car accident yet?” They said no, but they were nearing it. They heard there had been an oil spill involving a tanker. We’d probably be late to school. Sighing, I watched the scenery: gray sky, bare trees, and of course, fellow commuters wondering why they hadn’t taken a neighborhood road instead.

I had almost succeeded in falling asleep, when my bus driver announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the window, you’ll see the reason for our delays.” (My bus driver likes sounding professional.) At first, we crept past construction trucks, big rust-colored dump trucks. Then came firetrucks, their sirens off. I imagined that most of the mess had already been cleaned up. Then came race car trucks: some with enclosed, box-car like trailers, others with open platforms. And on top of one of these open platforms sat a car, almost like it was on display. A neon orange Mustang or Dodge - some modern American muscle car - with its front crumpled like a wad of paper. Totaled. I remembered my Drivers Ed teacher’s words, “If you get into an accident with a truck, forget it. Your car’s mass is nothing compared to the trucks.” The car would be - and this car was - squished like a bug. We passed the orange wreck of a car. Even as an atheist, I prayed its driver was okay.

I wonder what caused that accident. Did the muscle car speed down the highway, only to lose control in the rain and collide with the tanker? Was someone driving half-asleep or under something’s influence? Did the tanker try to merge lanes, not realizing there was a vehicle in their blindspot? Was someone texting? It scares me, that a simple mistake could cause a catastrophe.

I felt like I had witnessed one of those car crash horror stories teachers tell in Drivers Ed class. I think to some degree, teenagers (including me) don’t understand the consequences of those crashes, or we brush it off, thinking, “That won’t happen to me.”

And then it’s too late.

And then, we’re forgotten as a passing traffic obstruction, or if we’re lucky, memorialized as a reminder to stay alert on the roads.

Witnessed car crash: https://wjla.com/news/local/tractor-trailer-overturns-i-495-fairfax-county