Icy conditions caused a massive 26-car pileup along Interstate 84 near Baker City, Oregon yesterday. Among the many accidents, perhaps the most frightening was one involving a pickup truck pinned between two semi truckers. Miraculously enough, the man inside the pickup truck, 27-year-old Kaleb Whitby, survived the harrowing ordeal. From CNN:
On the foggy, icy Oregon interstate, Kaleb Whitby plowed into the back of a jackknifed semi truck, flipping his pickup over.
Then the real horror came: the sight of another tractor-trailer zooming straight toward him.
“When I saw those lights coming, I knew he was going to hit me,” Whitby said.
“And then I closed my eyes and prayed that everything turned out OK. That was all I could do.”
He gripped the steering wheel tightly as the second semi smashed through his pickup, crushing it like a soda can.
“It was just metal crunching and glass. It was just all fast and loud.”
The crash left only two things intact: The marred shell surrounding Whitby’s seat, and Whitby, who was pinned between the two trucks.
“I got scared of the possibility it could have been the end,” the 27-year-old father said…
Before trying to wiggle out, Whitby decided to let the sound of traffic subside “to make sure things were OK.”
Then passers-by came to help. “One guy pulled my feet out just enough so I could slide out of the car.”
Local police officials are calling the pileup one of the biggest the Interstate has seen in years. Thankfully, there were no reported fatalities. As for Whitby? He walked away from all the twisted metal with a just a few scratches on his hand and a bruise on his eyebrow.
(Via CNN)