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View Full Version : So Check This Out. I had an intresting weekend



Thunder Dan
01-03-2008, 10:29 AM
I went to Chicago this past weekend for New Year's with 3 friends of mine. We drove from Cleveland which is about a 5 hour drive. The trip started out perfect as the hotel we stayed at upgraded us to a loft with 2 Plasmas and a movie theater/lounge area, and a view of Chicago from the hotels top floor. My sister works for the hotel (The James) so it was an awesome score. The rest of the trip was awesome. We went to a cool place for New Years where I met Kyle Orton and Jermaine Dye. So the trip was perfect till..

We decided to stay to watch the Michigan Florida game, so we were late getting back. It was snowing in Chicago, but not bad enough to stop us from wanting to drive back; plus I have a Trailblazer so I figured I could just put it in 4 wheel drive. The drive back was horrible, I was white knucked for about 2 hours and then all of a sudden, I hear a giant bang, and smoke and a terrible smell coming from the front of my Trailblazer. I pulled over and called the Cops at 12:10. Because the roads were so bad, we thought it would be best to get out of the car to get away from the road so somebody wouldn't run into us. We waited for an abnormally long time we thought for someone to come help us. We saw cops pass us as we stood in 15 degree temps with snow up to our knees. We finally got help, and a tow truck driver told us that just minutes after we called for a help there was a terrible accident just 4 miles from where we were stopped (which explained the police). We broke down at mile marker 130 and this happened at 134 The next morning, while getting my car fixed at a local shop, we heard that it was a van full of college students that were headed back to Ohio from Chicago and their van lost control, flipping, and killing 2 girls. This was the van we practically followed for 2 hours as we left Chicago. I can't help but feel extremely lucky my car broke down when it did. But I thought it would be a pretty crazy story to share.


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hprWkNeuNTCw5ViWwAVFTwF28I1AD8TTVQUG0


2 Students Killed in Ind. Van Crash

18 hours ago

ORLAND, Ind. (AP) — A van full of international students from Bowling Green State University in Ohio overturned on a snow-covered highway early Wednesday, killing two.

The rental van rolled several times and landed on its roof in the median of the Indiana Toll Road in northeast Indiana, said state police Cpl. Derek Fisher.

Those killed — Apsana Giri, 26, a graduate student in biology from Katmandu, Nepal, and Sweety Mazumdar, 25, a graduate student in geology from Calcutta, India — were thrown from the van, state police said. Two male students suffered minor head injuries.

State police said six people were in the van, while Bowling Green spokeswoman Teri Sharp said it had seven passengers.

The group was returning to Ohio from a trip to Chicago over the holiday break, said Teri Sharp, a school spokeswoman. Additional details weren't immediately available.

While the road was snowy, Fisher could not say if the weather had contributed to the crash.

thispego
01-03-2008, 11:13 AM
you would have been ok

Ed Helicopter Jones
01-03-2008, 01:05 PM
Wow. I'm sorry for the folks that lost their friends/relatives.


When you're that close to being involved in a fatal accident it certainly gives you perspective. Unfortunately I've witnessed, or driven up in the aftermath of a few fatal accidents over the years. Based on what I've seen I now drive as defensively as possible and, unlike my stupid teenage years, refuse to drive if I've had anything at all to drink. I also do my best to not drive long distances in bad weather conditions. That certainly doesn't stop an accident from happening, but at least I'm doing all I can to prevent one.

This was a pretty big change for a guy who, once when driving to Mexico, for dozens of miles drove down the freeway with his car in cruise, sitting on the roof outside the sunroof steering with my feet. My two buddies were also sitting on the roof and we were laughing at our daring nature. Now I cringe at the memory of it and hope my son didn't inherit my fearlessness/brainlessness.