Our Wednesday drive to Montana started at 4am. But, because of an I-15 on-ramp closure at US 95 near the Vegas Strip, we were delayed about 15-20min getting on I-15 north.
This put us at the US93 junction (our preferred northern route of choice to Butte) right at 5am. Sunrise was at 5:28, so it was in pre-dawn light.
We drove about 35 miles north on US93 and came upon a line of stopped traffic and a big rig across the northbound lane in front of us and a crushed car on fire in the south bound lane south of Coyote Springs. The driver of the car must have died instantly. There was a road paving crew with a water truck putting water on the burning car as thick black smoke filled the morning sky. Seems the northbound semi hit the vehicle from behind as it was parked just off on the gravel shoulder. Folks on the scene I spoke with said there wasn't anything anyone could do to help the victim. Emergency services were almost an hour away. All we could do was watch with a sense of helplessness as the car continued to burn. It took the road crew a good 10-15 minutes to put the fire out. When the water truck drove passed us the look on the faces of the driver and his co-worker told it all.
We were all at a standstill for about 20 minutes as traffic was continually stacking up for some distance north and south of the accident site. It became apparent that the fatality would require the highway to be shut down for some time. I got to talking to the driver of a big rig that was parked behind us, and he said a little over two weeks earlier north of Ely on this same route he was stuck 6 hours because of an accident. At that point, almost 45min after the wreck, no emergency crew or police had shown up at the scene. So, we decided to take our chance at turning around and back track the 35 miles to I-15.
As we made it back to the I-15/ US93 junction we saw the Nevada Highway Patrol and an ambulance heading to the scene. After getting into Butte at almost 9pm, we later learned from an Internet news search that the highway had remained closed until nearly 11am, some 6 hours after the accident. Had we not been delayed getting on US93 who knows what our fate might have been. What's that old saying, "But by the good grace of god go I".
It made for a very long day thinking what might have been! All that matters, after witnessing the trauma in the pre-dawn morning, was that we made it safely to Montana after a 16hr, 928 mile drive to be with our family for the summer.
Life is so fragile, and we all take so much for granted.
