Trailer Breaks Loose -- Fatal Accident Narrowly Avoided (Awarded: $16,49.20)
Posted by John Harris on Sat, Dec 04, 2010 @ 09:37 AM
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Trailer Breaks Loose -- Fatal Accident Narrowly Avoided
It was around 9:30 in the morning. Joe Wilson was driving to Northern Virginia. He was going to hear a speech by Sen. Mark Warner. He was traveling uphill on William Street alongside the University of Mary Washington. Wilson's car was almost stopped at the College Avenue traffic signal when it happened. Suddenly, a utility trailer being pulled by pickup truck came loose from the pickup truck.
The detached trailer, packed with sod for a landscaping project, veered downhill into the westbound lane, headed for Wilson's car. The trailer hit Wilson's car head-on. The trailer's connection mechanism crashed through his windshield. Luckily, Joe Wilson saw it coming of a split second before it crashed into his car. He was able to dive across the arm rest into the floor just as it came across the hood. He threw up his hands which was an automatic reaction to protect himself. When the accident was over, Joe Wilson was almost buried with the landscaping sod which came through the windshield on top of him. He thought he would die. Fortunately he did not die. However, the force of the impact caused him to suffer a severe injury to his left hand, which he had raised just before the impact.
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