Sacramento, CA
Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 12:41am

The overturned semi-truck hauling Smuckers Jelly packets, was a much more docile ending than what this incident could have been. What you don’t see from this angle is the wreckage of multiple cars on the other side of truck that flipped twice (per reports), before it came to rest spilling its sticky cargo all over the highway.

Dennis Hanson stated that the car in front of him (actually the second or third vehicle in the incident), “spun out and a fender came off or the hub cap or something, and came to a complete stop in the middle lane.” As Hanson approached, he swerved to the right lane to avoid the vehicle and was hit from the rear by the car behind him. Hanson made his way to the side and went back to meet with the owner of the vehicle that collided with his car. “ Meanwhile,” Hanson stated, “the car is still in the middle of the road and cars are swerving around it.” Hanson yelled to the driver “get your family out the car. This is a disaster waiting to happen.” Per Hanson, just as the driver “got his wife and kid out of the car, less than a minute later, the big rig came and plowed right into it.” Hanson then went to help the truck driver who apparently had been ejected. When Hanson called to him he said he was out and he thought both his legs were broken. When Hanson was finally able to get around the wreckage to the driver, he found him hobbling on a compound fractured leg with bones protruding through the skin. The driver was looking through the roadside grass to find his cell phone… and he did.

Considering the massive wreckage strung a roughly half mile down the interstate, the injuries in this accident were quite minor in comparison to what they could have been. All lanes were stopped across the interstate for less than 30 minutes. Sacramento Fire Department and CHP were able to open the first three lanes quite quickly while the number four lane remained closed for some time due to clean up and to enable the wrecker to right the semi-truck and it’s trailer. One of the other victims from this accident called in to 911 and stated she was high and injured in the middle divider. Whether she was the cause of any part of this incident is unknown at this time.

In another accident just a few miles and minutes before this incident, at Twin Cities and Interstate Five, the occupants were not as fortunate. We do not have the details from that incident other than it was a head-on collision and fatalities were involved.

Our weekend is already starting off in wreckage and carnage. As this story is being written, calls are going out for an overturned vehicle on Greenback Lane, and another vehicle accident on Interstate 80 East at Auburn with a person down in the middle of the road. Do your part to be safe on the road this weekend. If you are not fit to be behind the wheel, be responsible and let someone else drive. Be alert and refrain from being distracted by cell phone calls and text messaging.