[Shotimes] (OT) Near misses... was: Almost lost it, aka death by phone

[van Oss]

Half a mile from my house is a gravel quarry.  Dump trucks go in and out of there all the time.  It's up on a river bluff, and the
entrance/exit road is a steep hill, so jake brakes are required.  Couple of years ago, a driver carrying a full load down the hill
failed to stop at the bottom, went straight across the county road, hit a house (no one was home), and rolled.  Took out the house.
Driver survived but in a new line of work.

Months ago, I went to a public meeting about the accident.  At the meeting were the husband and wife who had lived in that house
(since rebuilt).  They made this point:  Two minutes after the accident occurred, school buses from Northwoods Elementary were
rolling down that same county road.  If that gravel truck had come down two minutes later and broadsided a schoolbus, we wouldn't
have been meeting in a church basement, but in a courtroom.

Bringing my sons home from school, I drove by that house four minutes after the accident.  The cops were just arriving.  If the
driver had tarried at the loading area for one more cigarette (he later testified he considered it), that truck might have taken out
my family and me.

We regret the bad stuff that happens.  Let's also be thankful for the bad stuff that could have happened, but didn't.

Joseph van Oss


----- Original Message -----
My only comment on things like this when they happen is directed to the idiot drivers out there ...