Semi Truck Accident 10-11-18

On October 10, 2018, I packed up my truck, left my home in White Salmon, Washington and headed towards San Diego. I was traveling on US-97 through The Dalles and Bend, Oregon. There was a lot of road construction and a major deer migration underway so I was driving cautiously, well under the speed limit due to heavy truck traffic and my fully loaded pickup truck.

Near Chiloquin, OR, I was stopped at a construction zone flagman when I was hit from behind by a 40 ton semi truck doing 50 mph. The driver, with a passenger and dog in the cab, did not even touch the brakes. Shortly after impact, I was knocked unconscious as the semi crushed my truck and dragged it 200 feet down the highway, running over construction equipment in the process.

I can't go into any more details about the accident here, except to say that I ran into, or should I say, got run over, by some very, very dangerous people. There is and will be more, just not here or now.

You don't have to look far on the internet to find semi truck drivers causing death, injury and destruction. Check out this full speed rear end collision. Just like the truck driver who hit me, this driver didn't touch the brakes either. This truck was empty, the one that hit me was more than thirty tons heavier.

I was unconscious for a minute or two after impact until the voices of the construction workers trying to pull me through the drivers side window of the crushed truck woke me up. A quick look around told me I was in big trouble. Everything in the cab of my truck was crushed or on the highway and the front wheel of the semi truck was in the passenger seat.

The only thing left was my camera on the seat next to me. Even though I was badly injured, like any good photographer, I had the video camera running within four or five minutes of being hit by a forty ton truck at fifty miles per hour. The adrenaline was flowing as it tends to do in near death experiences, but you can see in the video below, as I limp around the front of my truck, when it hits me that this will affect the rest of my life. 60 frames per second, HD video of my life being destroyed.

One again, I cannot go into details at this time, but following the accident both my insurance company and the "insurance" company of the truck driver who hit me refused to pay for any medical expenses or damage from the accident. Still suffering from a concussion, barely able to walk and no vehicle, I realized I would be fucked over by the insurance companies and unless I came up with a bunch of cash very quickly, I would be on the street.

Buy quickly selling my hard earned possessions and thanks to my good friends who helped me out when I needed it most, I was able to buy a truck, pay off the expenses from the accident and replace some of the things I needed to survive. I am hard of hearing, without my hearing aids, lost somewhere on the highway when the semi ripped my truck apart and insurance refused to replace, there was no chance of getting a job when I was able to move around again.

It was getting cold in the Columbia Gorge, I did not have enough money following the accident to afford medical care, let alone a place to live. And just like that, through no fault of my own, I became a villainized homeless person. This was about the time I started to ask myself "Why did you stop for that stop sign? Look what happened". This was not the first time dealing with corrupt government and the criminals they protect. I knew from direct personal experience that the law would not protect me, yet I stopped for the sign and look what happened.

Winter in the Cascade Mountains is not a good time of year for a sixty six year old man to be living in the back of a pickup truck with fifty bucks to his name. When I was run over by the semi, I was headed to Yuma AZ with the idea of starting a business. I was there the previous winter to go kayak fishing and saw a business opportunity straightaway. I had everything I needed to get the business going when most of it was crushed in the back of my truck. I headed back to the desert southwest again, not as a potential business owner, but as a homeless veteran.

When I arrived in the desert, deaf, no money, barely able to get around with no options for medical care, I literally had to start with nothing and try to survive. Asking myself every day and every night; "why did you stop for that sign?"

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