About the time I was posting the blog early Thursday morning, I heard a series of booms and a long rumbling noise off in the distance. At first, I thought it was a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, but I didn’t remember anything on the schedule about a night launch, and then I thought it might be a train passing on the tracks about a mile from our house. As it turned out, it wasn’t that either.
It was a terrible series of accidents on Interstate 95 at the State Road 442 exit here in Edgewater. The highway is a couple of miles west of us and runs parallel to US 1. According to news reports, seventeen vehicles, including several eighteen-wheelers, were involved in five separate crashes around 1:30 a.m. on both the northbound and southbound lanes the highway. Authorities say that a combination of smoke from a controlled burn and dense fog reduced visibility to near zero, and the vehicles involved either stopped on the roadway or pulled over to the shoulder and then were hit by traffic following them.
The news last night said that three people had been killed in the collisions, and several others were injured. Some of the big trucks caught fire, and the blaze was so intense that the highway was still closed at midnight last night as crews worked to replace the pavement.
Having driven in my share of Arizona dust storms, I know how bad it can get when you suddenly can’t see anything in front of you. Please, if you are ever in a situation like that, get off the highway. Get as far onto the shoulder as you can, and even off the roadway if possible. Turn off your lights and keep your foot off the brake pedal so traffic coming up behind you won’t plow right into you.
That’s about all I have for you today because I spent all day yesterday writing. I got another 4,000 words or so done in on my new book, and today will be more of the same.
And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.
Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Ken Rossignol’s Pirate Trials: Dastardly Deeds & Last Words, the stories of bloodthirsty pirates brought to justice for their barbarism on the high seas.
To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.
Thought For The Day – Behind every angry woman is a man who has absolutely no idea what he did wrong.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!