South America 2008

Friday, February 8

We woke up early and were on the road by 7 am. I used earplugs for the first time while riding and liked it. The previous day’s ride was loud and the noise wore me down during the day. The lack of noise made the riding more surreal and I almost felt like it wasn’t me leaning into the corners in the crisp, cold morning air.

We were about twenty minutes into our ride when we reached the top of a hill and had to slow down for an eighteen wheeler. He started to take off down the hill, which was too steep and narrow for me to attempt a pass so I gave the guy some room, intending to pass near the bottom. I stayed about 100 yards behind him and started to notice that he was driving just a little bit too fast. The truck started to round the last curve and I saw the left tires at the rear of the trailer start to lift off the ground.

Time seemed to slow as the tires came higher and higher off the ground. At a certain point I knew that the tires wouldn’t come back down and sure enough, the trailer’s left side was completely in the air and the trailer and tractor rolled together to the right, impacted the shoulder, and did a complete flip, landing rightside up on the side of the road, with a sickening crash, and flying dirt and debris.

This occurred in just a few seconds but was horrible to watch as I could see where things were headed. I had kept a safe distance and had plenty of time to negotiate the curve and slow to a stop. I rode for another couple of hundred yards, pulled off the road, and drove back to the truck.

I saw a woman lying face down near the truck. Her arms were convulsing and her face was bloody. I saw a man taking young children out of the smashed up cab and placing them near the woman. By the time I stopped and took off my helmet and gloves, three children were sitting on the ground as the crying man cradled and hugged the woman.

The three kids were about 10, 4, and 2 years old. The oldest,a boy sat dazed, tears covering his face and held onto his little sisters. I went to the cab and pulled out several blankets and covered the children and the woman. It was about 50 degrees out and there was a wicked 20 mph wind and I worried about them going into shock. I found some pieces of foam from the wreckage to place under the woman´s head. Roar approached and spread out his first aid kit in front of the kids. He started cleaning up the boy’s face.

The woman regained consciousness but it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain and to make things even worse, I saw that she was clearly pregnant. I asked the man where she felt pain and he replied that it was her head, which explained the convulsions. When I first saw that I thought that she was going to die for sure.

As Roar continued to treat the boy I ran up to the road when I heard vehicles approach. I flagged down several drivers heading in each direction and asked them to call the police and for an ambulance. There was not much else for Roar or I to do, except to treat these people for shock and wait for an ambulance. The boy had a three inch gash to the back of his head that would require stitches but it wasn’t bleeding.The man continued to cry and hug and cradle the woman. The little girls sat and cried, I felt so bad for them. Thankfully, it was not the blood curdling cries, which to me would indicate that the kids were badly hurt. But they were shaken up, hurt, and traumatized just the same.

Over the course of the next twenty five minutes several people pulled over. Fortunately, a few tourists came to help out. A german couple offered to transport the family back to Cataviña so we loaded the family in the back of their minivan. I felt especially bad for the boy because I know he was trying so hard to hold on but he was laying on his side underneath the blanket with his quickly swelling eye shut by the time we guided him to the minivan.

Shortly after the minivan left a police truck showed up. It was 45 minutes after the accident occurred, which is not surprising considering how remote that section of Baja is. I briefly explained to the cop in my broken Spanish what happened and that was it. No witness statement or anything so we just prepared to hit the road.

Interesting to transition from witnessing such a life altering event back to the routine we had from the last couple of days. It was life altering for the man and his family. For us, not so much. We did what we thought was right. We helped out strangers in need and tried to comfort and summoned help. But we continued on with our trip. Who knows what will happen to that man and his family. He’s lucky that he and his children are alive and I hope that that remained true of his wife….

To be continued…..