Reading about Maryam's wreck reminds me that fire makes a bad situation worse in a car accident. Ask any race driver what their greatest fear is and they all say, "Fire."

We saw one of those wrecks on our way home from Charlotte last week. It happened on an I-40 viaduct in the middle of Knoxville. It was a horrible chain of events that began when a building on Broadway caught fire and the fire was visible from where the interstate passed over Broadway. Some say the drivers were distracted by the fire which was only a half block away. No one is sure about the order of the collisions, but there was a station wagon in the east bound lane crushed between a tanker full of asphalt and another tractor trailer. There was also a van envolved. The five people in the wagon were killed and the other drivers injured. The gas tank on the wagon probably exploded setting the asphalt on fire. Another explosion occurred a half minute later. Debris from the explosions flew across the west bound lanes and landed on some building below, starting another fire. Fire fighters on the scene of the first fire suddenly found themselves with three fires at the same time. The one on the viaduct was so hot they couldn't get close enough to fight it effectively.

We were about a mile from the scene when traffic came to sudden stop. Then we began inching forward. I turned on the CB radio and heard truckers talking about a tanker on fire. They said it was on the eastbound side and that some traffic was getting through on the westbound side. After about 20 minutes we reached the scene. The fire was under control and there was a lot of steam and smoke rising. As we passed, we could only see the trailer trucks. The tanker had the rear half burned off and the one behind had the tractor and part of the trailer burned and melted. We never dreamed that there was a station wagon between them. It must have been underneath. I've seen a lot of accidents over the years, but none worse than that. I don't think it even made the national news.
Howard