Traveling Thru Montana... (move, dental, snow)

[seven of nine]

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by seven of nine

I probably said something considerably more pungent

Dunno about now, but back then, on the whole MT drivers were pretty safe -- except if you DID see someone being wild, it was REALLY wild!!

One day I was driving east on the highway out of Belgrade, road was icy but nothing unusual... and all of a sudden this car comes SPINNING down the road .. literally swapping ends round and round as it went. Clipped me and a couple others on the way by and kept right on spinning on down the road into town. Dunno if she ever stopped. I was told the old gal driving nipped a bit...

Then there was the day just west of Bozeman when I saw someone rolling a pickup truck ON PURPOSE. They went sideways into the ditch, then the truck would flip over, wheels in the air, and roll upright again, then they'd drive a little ways down the road and do it again. Saw 'em do it 5 or 6 times as I went by. Sure makes you wonder!!

[seven of nine]

Can we say "Dukes of Hazzard"? Might be showing my age, yee-ha!

[Reziac]

Made the Dukes of Hazzard look downright sedate

Hey, anyone else ever see the Batmobile that used to be in Bozeman? It was a two-seater with big fins, black with fancy trim, and VERY cool!

[rickers]

I was driving on a very icy road going a reasonable speed when this brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee passed us like a bat out of hell. I half jokingly said to my wife "see that guy who just flew by ? We'll be passing HIM soon". Well about 45 minutes later we did pass him, he was upside down in the ditch and the ambulance was already there.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by rickers

I was driving on a very icy road going a reasonable speed when this brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee passed us like a bat out of hell. I half jokingly said to my wife "see that guy who just flew by ? We'll be passing HIM soon". Well about 45 minutes later we did pass him, he was upside down in the ditch and the ambulance was already there.

I've experienced that scenario a time or two myself... pulled one of 'em out of the ditch on down the way, too.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by Reziac

I've experienced that scenario a time or two myself... pulled one of 'em out of the ditch on down the way, too.

The attitude around here is when someone blows by you obviously driving like and idiot and ends up in the ditch you wave and honk as you go by leaving them to wait for MHP. Of course if they rolled or something you stop to see if they're injured but other than that they can sit for awhile and think about the error of thier ways...

[rickers]

Another time more recently we came across a guy who didn't make a curve for some reason or another. There was one guy who stopped before us and we stopped also to try to stop cars and try to call for help. Nobody seemed to have a cell phone. Finally we found a guy who had a phone and he called it in. About a half hour went by before the ambulance arrived. All we could do was watch the poor guy convulsing as they slid him in the wagon. We found out later he died on the way to the hospital. Now I can't drive by that spot without thinking about that guy dying right in front of us and not being able to do anything about it.

[JetMech72]

Originally Posted by rickers

Another time more recently we came across a guy who didn't make a curve for some reason or another. There was one guy who stopped before us and we stopped also to try to stop cars and try to call for help. Nobody seemed to have a cell phone. Finally we found a guy who had a phone and he called it in. About a half hour went by before the ambulance arrived. All we could do was watch the poor guy convulsing as they slid him in the wagon. We found out later he died on the way to the hospital. Now I can't drive by that spot without thinking about that guy dying right in front of us and not being able to do anything about it.

I've seen my fair share of fatalities on Montana highways. The worst of which was at the bottom of Evaro Hill on Hwy 93 just north of the Wye. It was a pick-up with a pole trailer, apparently the trailer (which is incredibly long) had come around on him and flipped the pick-up. I was on the Hamilton Bronc bus when we passed the scene...heading to Polson for a game. It took us the rest of the trip to get the image of the carnage out of our heads so that we could play the game. On the way home, after losing, the only thing we talked about was the accident we had seen on Evaro Hill.

On the subject of people driving too fast for the road conditions, there is one that sticks out in my mind. I was on Hwy 12 between Garrison and Avon heading to Helena and it was snowing pretty good and there were patches of ice on the road, there used to be a rest stop in this area (for those of you that remember the rest stop, you'll know which curves I'm talking about). There is one left-sweeping curve that you can see through, but is followed by a blind curve to the right as it goes around the mountain side. Well, I was driving along in my Thunderbird, which has amazing traction with it's posi rearend, and this guy in a little Toyota Corolla goes whizzin by me like his hair was on fire into the first of these two curves. I just shook my head and hoped I wouldn't have to pull this guy out of a ditch later on down the road. Well, I watched him disappear around the next corner. When I made that same corner, I saw two tire tracks in the fresh snow off to my right and at the end of these tracks sits the Corolla, backwards up against the side of the mountain. He had spun 180 degrees before leaving the highway. And as difficult as it was, because of the ice, I stopped and saw that he was just fine, but highly pissed off....I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was his own fault. The Corolla was stuck pretty good so I gave him a lift to Avon. Neither of us said a word, until we got into Avon and he thanked me for the lift and I replied; "Stay safe."

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by JetMech72

I've seen my fair share of fatalities on Montana highways. The worst of which was at the bottom of Evaro Hill on Hwy 93 just north of the Wye. It was a pick-up with a pole trailer, apparently the trailer (which is incredibly long) had come around on him and flipped the pick-up. I was on the Hamilton Bronc bus when we passed the scene...heading to Polson for a game. It took us the rest of the trip to get the image of the carnage out of our heads so that we could play the game. On the way home, after losing, the only thing we talked about was the accident we had seen on Evaro Hill.

"I drive Highway 93. Pray for me." -- MHP bumper sticker

I'm reminded of something sad from long ago: I was watching the late news, this was in the early days of the "Montana News Network", and the Sunday night news anchor was this high-school kid from a small-town school up somewhere near Glacier Park. Extra-nasty winter weather at the time, and one of the news items was about a van-load of kids and coaches coming back from a game; their van had gone over the edge somewhere on Hwy 2 (if I recall right) and everyone was killed.

They were this kid's teachers and classmates. He found out by reading the news item as it came to him on the anchor desk. The poor guy is sitting there with tears streaming down his face, reading the bad news to the world -- it had to be really tough, but he managed to finish his shift.

They changed the travel rules for school teams after that -- no more being bussed around when the roads were more-than-average hazardous.

And I don't recall who the news-anchor kid was, but I sure felt proud of him -- that's part of the frontier spirit, to feel the pain of loss but still soldier on, because other people are counting on you.