The Accident

Well.. I was going to do a series of pictures , starting from me leaving my house, to getting to the track bare, spraying the track, yadda yadda down to the awards and just to showcase how the day goes along.

I got just about to the track, and it started to rain. When I got to the track, and it had stopped raining, but the ground was very wet. The sky was blue above me, but to the east, looked like crap.. So I called the wife, she said radar does not look good. I called Roy, he said the radar is junk- he is on his way. Well, I said heck with it, the sooner we call people and tell them it's off, and I can get home and update the website, the better. So, off to home I go. I live about 30 miles from the track.

I get about 1/3 of the way home, on I-35 and notice action in the rear view mirror. The trailer was standing up on it's rear, and all I could see was the bottom of the trailer.  :shock:  Well-- I think to myself it must have come off the hitch, but the chains will keep it attatched anyway, so I let off the gas and let it coast so the trailer will not slam into my truck so hard. Worst case scenario I need some body work.  Well, that only lasted a fraction of a second as soon my trailer was too far behind me for the chains to still be holding, so the trailer was off the truck.  :shock:  :shock:  :shock: I keep watching in the mirror, and the trailer (still standing on it's rear) is dumping PVC on the road, and then swerves to the right, and flips, hitting the guardrail upside down. Pieces are flying every which way, and VERY LUCKY for myself, and everybody else on the road, there were only 2 people within a football field or so that had to dodge the debris. The only thing hit was the plastic PVC, and a flat folded up table. The Table was just squished flat,  and the PVC shattered apart. The one car that I saw run over the PVC didn't even stop. It's very light plastic.  While all this is going on, I hear a dragging noise from my truck, which I thought was odd, becasue the trailer was gone. There was an exit ramp only a couple hundred feet up, so I got off the highway, slowed down, and stop, get out, go to the back, and much to my surprise, about a 4 foot section of trailer tounge is still attatchd to the ball on my truck, the chains are still attatched to it, and also attatched to my truck, and the spare tire carrier, and spare tire, and the 3rd wheel post for moving the trailer ARE ALL THERE!   The aluminum tounge had sheared from the frame. If you are familar with a snowmobile trailer, you can tilt the platform back to drive the snowmobiles up on it. Well the tounge sheared right at the guide hole pin that keeps the platform in place.  This trailer was built to pull 2 snowmobiles side by side, and all I had in it was some PVC pipe, and some plastic bins with track support equipment, and my empty plastic sprayer. Why the trailer failed is beyond me. I can't begin to think what would of happened with the highway full of 70 MPH traffic with this thing loose. Lucky for me, the only 2 people even close had time to move, and just get some plastic pipe, and also the fact that the trailer went off to the side and hit the guardrail and stopped.  I got back on the highway headed the opposite direction, to get back to the accident. It was not a pretty site from the opposite lanes to see the trailer updside down on the guardrail and stuff all over. So.. I got off at the next ramp, and and to turn back up now towards the trailer. I called my wife, told her to come, I also called Roy since I knew he was up and could help. I also called the cops just to come out and at least get peoples attention to slow down and be careful while we tried to see what the first step was going to be as far as clean up. The cops got there, and could not believe what they saw with the trailer tounge sheared like it did. Fellow racer Jeff Dedrick was the first to show up (Roy Called him) and then Roy, and my wife. We got all the PVC out of the center median, and off the shoulder, and then just loaded up whatever we could into our cars and trucks. The trailer was put on a flatbed and brought to my father in laws house which was only 5 miles away from the accident. Another very lucky thing for us, I keep the tree and display in the back of my truck instead of in the trailer, so the tree is fine.  We will try and get things together for next weekend and make up todays race. We are going to need some new guardrail pieces, and hopefully that is all (and a way to transport it all) The printer and track cables were in the boxes in the trailer, hopefully they will be ok. The sprayer is damaged, but still sprays, so that's a good thing.  I'll keep this forum and the track website updated with what the plans are to make up the race.

So.. here are the final pictures of the day... No photos of  "guys racing toy cars for bowling trophies" like I had planned, but something quite the opposite.