I Was Trapped in This Tangle of Horror: The story of the diesel wreck that should have killed me.

When I was 14 or so I would ride along with my brother and brother-in-law on their truck routes during the summer. They were older than me by ten years or so, so this made for an interesting experience. There are many stories from the road that I can tell you, but this one is about the time my brother-in-law decided to throw his truck off of the side of a cliff with me and him in it.

The image below is one that I found randomly online but it shows exactly how I felt that night. We will get to this part later. For now, every story has a beginning.

Photo by Mike Ko on Unsplash

That Faithful Day, In The Beginning.
I honestly don’t remember this myself but my mother says she specifically told my brother-in-law “Be careful with my son, don’t let anything happen to him”. This was easy to reply to because, of course, he would never do anything to hurt me. Even to this day, he is one of my best friends. This man and I have been through this experience together and it’s not something in life that everybody can boast about experiencing.

It was day one. We left and drove for days. Usually, when I would go on these trips it would be in the summer because the trips could and would take several days to a week. We had a lot of fun on this trip, which I can remember. That though is a story for another time. (let me know in the comments if you would like to hear about some of our adventures on the road).

Now To The Good Part!
We were driving along somewhere in Missouri (like I said I was 15 so all the exact details…) and we had been driving for a couple of days at least without sleep. Sam and I were doing our normal stupid forms of self-entertainment when my young body just couldn’t take being tired anymore. I decided (and had to at this point) to go to sleep for the night.

Now, this is gross but in my opinion, the most important decision I was forced to make that night. When I lay down, like every human on the planet, I took my boots off so that I could get comfortable and sleep. Well, thank god that my feet stunk so bad that Sam made me sleep in my boots! My road filth may have just saved our lives that night.

I was asleep in minutes I’m sure. So, this part is told from the mouth of Sam and it’s just secondhand to me. We were driving along and we came to a point where we were doing at least 55 and for just a moment Sam fell asleep at the wheel. The jolt woke him up but to no avail. There was a drop-off on the side of the road due to construction and the tire was able to roll down the road (on the curb opposite the drop-off) but Sam was not able to correct the truck.

Sam Had A Choice!
He later stated that he had time to think, that if he was brave enough he could have jumped from the truck. At this point, it was obvious that we were going to roll down the hill. He decided in a moment to ride the truck to the bottom because I was in the truck and in his mind to bail would be to abandon me.

So now it’s to the point of no return. Sam and I are going over this hill and there is nothing we can do about it. I do remember Sam yelling “Hold on Chris we're going over!” Even to this day when I tell this part of the story it almost brings tears to my eyes.

And Then There Was Destruction!
We started to roll it had to be on the first go-round of this forced adventure that I was knocked out! This may have been another saving grace because my body was limp the majority of the way down. Sam is in the driver’s seat and I am in the sleeper being flung like a human pinball until spin after a spin down this hill we finally came to a stop and the sleeper had just enough room for me to fit in it.

The cab itself had just enough room for one person now. If I had been in the passenger seat I wouldn’t be here today to tell you this story simply because at this point there was no passenger seat! We were in the only two places possible to survive this event!

Amazing Feats Of Survival!
At the bottom of this hill was a disaster. The truck was destroyed and it looked like a tornado had blown a barn apart due to our load of lumber that we were hauling. I’m going to go ahead and tell you now that Sam broke his back and split his head wide open. I broke my pelvis but miraculously that’s all!

That being said what’s to come is a miracle all on its own. Sam finds a way to crawl from the truck and as he’s digging through the rubble looking for me, he stumbles upon my foot. You see he was simply reaching in and hoping for the best. After he found my foot he started to give it a shake to see if I was even alive.

After minutes of this and me, not responding he thought the worst. I was simply knocked out but now in his mind. he’s already thinking of ways to break this to my family. Much to his relief, I wake up in what can only be described as a nightmare. This is now the point where I may as well have been in a pit or the void. From my point of view, I couldn’t tell a difference.

My Nightmare Begins!
I wake up to Sam shaking my foot not knowing where I am, at all! At this point, I rolled with the truck, and as it was doing so. The truck itself had wrapped around me. I was upside down with all my weight on my neck and my feet pointing straight up in the air. The frame of the sleeper bed had wrapped itself around me. Holding me down with no way out.

I scream “Where are we, what happened?” Sam replies “We were in a wreck and I don’t know where we are, I can’t see the road”. This immediately made things worse for me. Because I was trapped in this tangle of horror and my mind, we fell into a bottomless pit!

After what seemed like an eternity and me cussing Sam to get me out of this truck he was able to free me. At one point he tells me he can’t get the frame out of the truck because he thinks he broke his back. I yell “I don’t give two shits about your back. You got me into this and you’re going to get me out of this!” I was in panic mode so I probably would have said anything. It must have been motivating though because Sam built up the strength to pull the frame off of me, broken back and all!

Human Nature.
Now I, with a broken pelvis and covered in piss (yes I pissed myself) crawled out of this truck and laid Sam Down on the mattress that was taken from the truck. My only option was to walk up the hill and flag down the traffic. So I walked…

I made it to the top of the hill where I sat on the side of the road bloody and crying while at least 10 cars just passed me up. After about 30 minutes of this, a car finally stopped. I was so thankful! There is always a catch. The people in the car told me that they would drive down the road and call 911 for us. But they were not going to get out of the car.

Not two weeks earlier they had stopped for pretty much the same thing and the people ended up robbing them! It was a scam! Now, this is before cell phones so all I could do now is hope these people kept their word. I walked down to the bottom of the hill to check on Sam and give him the details.

How Did We Survive?
In the end, the people did what they said and an ambulance came and got us. We went to the hospital and Sam and I both went through a long time of recovery, him way worse than me.

At one point we went to get what we could salvage from the truck and when we walked up to the person in charge at the salvage yard he said “I’m sorry for your loss”. You see, he wasn’t told anything he just assumed because the truck was so bad. The shock on his face was indescribable when we told him that I was in the truck!

It was the closest that I have ever come to experiencing a miracle. We were in the only two spots possible to live in that truck and it just so happened to stop rolling where the holes we could crawl out of were facing up. Just to give you an idea. If you were so inclined, (I know because I did it). You could walk up to the truck from the driver’s side and open the glove box that was hanging out the driver’s side door! There were two functioning light bulbs in the glove box…

Thanks for reading!