end of a dream

The two engined truck was actually a very clever solution.

Truckers have a load going some where, but it is the back haul that pays some of the expenses. Rare is the trucker who makes a profit o the back haul, but it is important.

Tankers are more complex. Once you put petroleum products in a tanker, there are not too many options on what to carry. So, Dad only had a one way load.

Going down the Ford engine was plenty strong enough to pull the empty semi. And coming back on fairy flat ground the Ford did just fine. It was going up Tehachapi and Donner was when that 2nd engine worked pretty well.

I do not remember how long that operation lasted. It might have been a matter of a few months and it might have been a year, but in geological time it was not too long.

About 3 in the morning the phone rang. It was one of those dreaded rings and you know it is not good.

Dad had been in an accident, there had been a fatality he was injured come to Stockton and get him.

Later we put it all together. Dad was headed north with a full load. There was a section of freeway that still had some cross roads. He could see a car coming down the crossroads, and it looked like it was not going to stop and it did not.

The car was going full speed. It hit dads truck on the Ford axle, passenger side. The truck rolled over the car crushing the driver to death almost instantly. At the same time the cab of the truck rolled the opposite direction putting an almost full turn in the frame rails behind the cab.

Of course there was a fire almost instantly. The passenger window was open and pointing up. Dad was not dazed, had his considerable wits with him. He climbed out that window and ran.

He did not come any where near the fire, but he got 2nd and 3rd degree burns any way.

The accident was at the top of an underpass, so 4500 gallons of gasoline ran down the road burning up a quarter mile of highway.

Dad always thought the driver was trying to commit suicide. He had a big life insurance policy, his wife cashed it in, and headed for Florida. She returned in due time and filed a law suit against dad.

But because her husband was killed in the accident, and not the fire, she had no standing and the suit was thrown out.

Dad spent several months healing. Without him working, I know it was financially tight. Sister and I were receiving Social Security from our dad’s death, and I think that $75 a month fed the family a lot.