Accident Caused by Highway Debris
by Richard
(Stillwater, Minnesota)
Ours was a road debris accident where a semi truck had lost an I-Beam from it's load. The sun had just set as we were travelling southbound on I-35 just into Kansas.
What we first saw were red lights ahead, that drew our eyes. Then it was the unidentifiable thing in the road, which we could not avoid.
There was a big thunk, and we thought we had survived whatever it was. Nonetheless we decided to take the exit we could see coming to check the undercarriage of the car.
Coasting down the off-ramp the oil light came on and the engine stopped. The oil pan had been ripped open and all of the oil had spilled out. The engine was never to run again.
We were 500 miles from home and 500 miles from our destination and quite stuck. The Highway Helpers were called, they got our van towed to a dealer, where we eventually got a new engine installed. We got a room and the next day we got probably the last rental car available the day before Thanksgiving.
The truck that dropped the I-Beam was indentified, the insurance was less than expected but it did pay for most of the new engine. We got to our destination on time, but it took another month to get the insurance payment, repairs finished, and pick up the van.
