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This was on the famous Seven Mile Bridge on New Year's Eve 2003. We fished in the Lower Keys that day. I had a dinner party to attend in Islamorada that evening but didn't make it because of an accident at the other end of the bridge that blocked the roadway. It turned out that a guy on a Harley, who was traveling in the southbound lane, was in such a hurry that he decided it would be a good idea to pass. As chance would have it he ended up encountering the unexpected and missed his appointment at his intended destination. When he pulled out and accelerated into the northbound lane he did succeed in passing the slower southbound traffic, however, and unfortunately, he didn't succeed in noticing the northbound propane gas tanker truck. Happy New Year! The sign in front of my green pickup shows the posted speed, which was probably the speed of the propane truck. When we finally started moving and arrived at the scene of the impact we saw a wet smudge on the pavement and no skid marks from the truck. Obviously the driver didn't have time to brake. Probably didn't have time to blow his horn either. Incredibly, the truck hardly had a mark on it and the driver was fine, I doubt he felt a thing at the time of impact. Judging by the smudge on the road the guy on the Harley didn't feel a thing either. Perhaps his untimely demise was caused by some sort of impairment of his observation skills which prevented him from noticing the proximity and speed of the oncoming tanker truck. The Harley guy's untimely demise did do one thing for certain. It shut down the flow of traffic for about five hours and was huge hassle for a whole bunch of people who had schedules to keep and engagements to attend. Sometimes on the holidays there are some rather spectacular blunders on the road. It's always tough when it happens on a bridge, especially one that's seven miles long. |