Tipping Point

      It was a cold rainy day in Kingfield Maine,I was working with a small crew at the Poland spring plant building a 24 foot wall in one of their storage areas. Our foreman came up to the whole crew and said I am sending you guys home early because the rain is coming down like cats and dogs and we could see lighting heading our way so its not safe to keep working in these conditions. there was a sense of happiness and urgency to get things picked so we could get out of there. So my buddies Shawn who is about 29 and Alex who is about 20 decided to load up the flatbed truck that we had drove up and with equipment so we don’t have to make so many trips to clean up the job. It only took us about thirty minuets to load the truck and make sure the load was secure and then we hoped into the truck and I was chosen to be in the middle seat of the truck. Shawn got in the driver seat of the truck and Alex got in the passenger seat and got on his phone to see what the time it was while Shawn started up the truck and I put 150.1fm on in the truck, the song footsteps by pop evil was playing and Alex said “its about time they start playing some good music, its been crap music so far.” I looked at him and agreed with a node and sat back in the seat with a sigh of relief that the day was finally over and that we were able to go home. Shawn started to drive down the road.

       It was quite in the truck with the only things making noise was the truck and the music coming out of the radio we were coming up on the Farmington town line when I what looked to be a truck with a trailer on it driving very slow thought to myself oh come on man move out of the way. Then I looked for the blinker on the trailer and then I looked at the truck to see if I could see if it had a turn signal and I couldn’t see anything no brake lights or turn signal. We got about 100 feet away from the truck when I felt my stomach drop, I yelled “SHAWN LOOK OUT.” I heard the brakes on the truck lockup and he turned the wheel to try to miss the truck who was now in a dead stop in the middle of the road. everything went slow motion I sat up to look out the window to see if we missed the trailer and we did by centimeters. I looked at Alex and said Hey we missed…..but before I could finish Shawn who missed the trailer hit the soft dirt on the side of the road and truck started to tip and that when everything went black. I could feel the truck roll to its side but it felt like it rolled a hundred times before it stopped. I unbuckled my seat belt and I rushed for the door I didn’t hear anyone, until Shawn said Matt relax a min so we can all get out easier. I stopped and said okay Alex how you doing bud? he said I’m good lets get out of this truck. I said I will not question that and we got the door that was now the top of the truck open and we climbed out. It took the Fire department about 10 minuets to get there and I didn’t understand what had just happened until I overheard two of the firefighters say I don’t know how these guys didn’t die. That’s when I realized what had actually happened and I went numb.

      I walked over to Shawn and Alex who were sitting on the tail gate of our foreman’s truck who showed up about 10 minuets after the Fire department showed up and Shawn turned to me and said “Matt I’m sorry man I should have rammed the trailer instead of putting our life’s at risk like that” I looked at him and said “don’t worry man mistakes were made but we are alive and that’s what matters right now”. He said “yeah thats true”. My uncle showed up with two of my cousins and we got the flatbed back on its tires and looked over it and my Uncle said “okay so Robert and I are going to drive this back Matt you go with Brian and get back home we will meet you there”. I said “i’m down with that I want to get as far away from that thing as I can”. I got into my Uncles truck and Brian started to drive back home.