Things ground to a halt here as I was away in Denver to help present an EnRoute training workshop. Things went well there. The trip home was a little more eventful.
My truck was parked in the long term parking at the airport. I had parked it way out back in the hopes of avoiding those nasty parking lot dings. It's not a new truck but new dents are always sad to see.
As we pulled up in the bus from the airport late Saturday night I took note of four or five police cruisers with lights flashing in the vicinity of my truck. I figured I may be trapped for a bit while they took care of business. No big deal. But as I got closer I found it curious my truck was parked diagonally. I had not left it that way. Then I noticed five other cars were parked the same random fashion and also bunched together in a nasty way. This couldn't be good.
A police officer met me as I approached. I identified my vehicle and he waved me in. As I got close I could see a car crunched up against the back of our vehicles. It turns out his gas pedal had jammed and he had built up quite a speed before using our vehicles to stop his rapid progress. My truck was the first in line and had taken a direct hit to the rear. The bumper and everything behind the wheels was unrecognizable, with damage radiating out from that point. The frame looked rather twisted as well. The small SUV beside me was in much worse shape, most of its windows gone and the body very bent. The cars three cars further down the line also suffered some damage diminishing as they got further from ground zero. All five vehicles had been pushed into the vehicles in front of them. The car that started the chain reaction was also very badly damaged.
Amazingly no one was hurt in the incident - even though there were two folks in the offending vehicle. Everyone else will simply get a nasty surprise when they come back to town from wherever. I hope they had a wonderful vacation for it will come to a sudden end on their return.
In the next days we'll find out if my truck is repairable or if it gets replaced. Either way life will go on. It's only a truck after all.
I spent a little time today on some routing files between many phone calls and appointments... and perhaps will get started posting again tomorrow with progress on some jobs... see you then.
-dan
