This morning on I-45 I saw something that I once thought was just a figment of an overworked mind’s dream back in the late 90s.

About 7 miles north of Conroe (give or take a few miles) a semi-truck had completely blocked all lanes of southbound traffic. The cab was nestled up against the concrete divider that thankfully separates the northbound and southbound sets of lanes. The end of the 40 foot trailer was in the far right lane. The rest of the cab and trailer stretched across all other lanes.

That was pretty astounding. As you can imagine, traffic was backed up for a mile or two behind this.

Truck crash. Ok what’s the big deal?

Well, the end of the trailer was sitting flat on the ground. The back wheel axle and assembly and the trailer itself had parted ways.

As I (and other road warriors) drove past the scene on the feeder road, I could see the rear wheel axle and wheel assembly in the middle lane of the freeway. It was upside down.

We had to drive carefully even on the feeder because there were bits of metal and wood on the road we were on.

Coming back to my dream now.

I was on a bus, commuting to work. I’d been overworked to hit a project deadline and was napping on the bus. I awoke at the sound of a horrendous noise and looked out the window just in time to see the back end wheel assembly of a semi-truck FLIP UPSIDE DOWN UNDER THE TRAILER and the trailer bouncing off the tires and start a sparking scrape along the concrete. I was so tired I assumed it was a weird bad dream and settled back in to sleep.

This morning I realized that what I thought was a dream actually happened back then, and again this morning.

The reason there was metal and wood on the feeder road, tens of feet from the truck on the freeway? The axel and wheel assembly, after freeing itself from the trailer, went off to the side of the road where it hit the wood and metal guard railing separating the freeway from the feeder. It smashed the guard rail and bounced back into the middle of the freeway.

Can you imagine being behind this truck, or one like it during this event?

Thank goodness it was in the wee hours, and not in a city, and not later further South.

Safe travels out there, fellow road warriors.