“Now what are the odds of this happening?”
Several years ago I was driving a nearly empty charter bus on I-75. The only passengers on the bus were my oldest daughter (She was about 2 years old at the time.), her mother, and I. I was driving from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to our home in Knoxville, TN. (At the time, I was working with students that were attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.) It was a beautiful day, albeit very windy. The northbound traffic was heavy, though moving along a good rate of speed. It was early to mid-March.
About noon, I was in the passing lane as we were travelling near Ocala, FL. I was paying very close attention to the vehicles that I was passing. However, on the opposite side of the highway, in the southbound lanes, I saw a car with a rug of fire spreading beneath it. I watched as the driver was able to get the car off the shoulder of the highway and stop. Both front doors quickly opened, two adults jumped out, turned towards the backseat, grabbed two small children, and ran away from the car. They were able to get, maybe, twenty-five feet from the car when the car exploded, knocking both of the adults and the children they held to the ground. The resulting fireball was caught by the breeze and spread to a nearby grove of pine trees, catching them on fire. Well, as you can imagine, the drivers of all of the cars heading north started hitting their brakes with brake-lights flashing everywhere. I saw the brake-lights of the car in front of me illuminate. Immediately, I began to apply pressure to the brakes of the bus and started slowing down. I knew there was adequate stopping distance between me and that car. I did not bargain on the possibility that a car from the right northbound lane was going to switch into my lane and stop immediately. Well, that is exactly what happened! And, yes. I was not able to avoid hitting the rear of the stopped car. Thankfully, my baby daughter, her mother, and I were not injured; jolted for sure, but not hurt at all. At about the time we came to a stop I felt something hit the rear of the bus, and then something hit the rear of the something that had hit the bus.
Upon exiting the bus, I found that the driver of the vehicle in front of me was not injured and was safely able to get out of his car. I did not seek to investigate the well-being of those behind me. The front of the bus was not seriously damaged; the bumper was bent. I figured that I could take it off and the bus would be drivable. The car that I hit was going to need to be towed. The excitement, however, was the major forest fire that had been ignited by the fireball from the car on the side of the southbound lanes of I-75. It was really ablaze, fanned by the March wind. (As I reflect, the whole scene now seems as though it belonged in a movie.)
Before too much time had passed emergency vehicles of all sizes and types began to arrive. In fact, the forest fire was rapidly spreading, the smoke was thickening, and all of the traffic was at a standstill. After a period of time, several forest service airplanes started arriving, bearing containers of water to be used to douse the flames.
Eventually, order was gained. The Florida State Troopers started sorting out the chaos of the traffic mess. When the trooper got to me I gave him my driver’s license as did the driver of the car I had hit. The trooper started back to his car in order to write my citation when he suddenly stopped, shook his head, turned and came back to me and the other driver. Upon arriving, he had a startled look on his face. He then said, as he retrieved his own identification from his rear pants pocket, “Now what are the odds of this happening?” The driver of the car that I hit was from Kenya (exchange student in graduate school at Georgia Tech), the trooper was born and raised in Florida, and I was from North Carolina (by way of Tennessee). It turns out we were all born on the same day in the same year, just in different locations. We enjoyed a good laugh; although I still got a cotton-pickin’ ticket!
You may find it interesting to know that there were a total of fifteen vehicles that crashed into the rear of the vehicle that crashed into the rear of the bus I was driving. Beside me, there were a total of twenty-one vehicles that were involved in accidents in the slow lane of northbound I-75 that day. In addition, there were numerous vehicles that wrecked on the southbound lanes as well. The trooper (reporter of the traffic situation) told me that traffic was blocked for more than twenty miles in either direction on 1-75 that day. Thankfully, while there were several injured, no one lost their life.
Damage to the rear of the bus was minimal. Thus, I removed the front bumper from the bus and was ready to proceed north. Just as I was preparing to drive off from the scene, the trooper pulled up alongside of me. He motioned for me to get off of the bus. After getting off, he walked up to me and said, “I have a favor to ask of you.” He then told me the couple and the children that I been in the car that exploded were from Wisconsin. They were on their way to Disney World for a brief vacation. However, because of the fire and resulting explosion, they lost all of their clothes, personal items, and traveler’s checks. The only money they had with them was the small amount of cash in their pockets. Knowing that I was travelling north, he asked if the couple and their children could hitch a ride to someplace where they could get in touch with their family and make arrangements to get home. Needless to say, the singed Sinkula family rode with us to Knoxville, stayed at our home for a few days, visited East Tennessee and even saw some of the Great Smokies. I continue contact with them today. “Now what are the odds of this happening?”
Helen Keller is the reported author of the statement, “Life is an exciting adventure, or it is nothing at all.” My hope for you is that you are enjoying your adventure and intentionally helping others to enjoy theirs as well. “Now what are the odds of this happening?”