The craziest thing happened last night, after a full day of swimming collecting seashells playing in the sand and enjoying the heat at the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, we were driving back to our Airbnb. It was a 2 Hour Dr. and about an hour into the drive, we pulled up behind a semi truck, the truck was swerving all over the road. It was a 3 Lane Highway and the truck was in the middle lane, the speed of the truck was fluctuating, and there were multiple near misses of the driver hitting other vehicles. It got so bad that my friend, her kids in the backseat and myself were scared that there was going to be an accident. My friend was driving and she stayed behind the truck, as it was too scary to pass the truck due to how unsafe he was driving.
It wasn’t long before we decided that something to be done, so I pulled out my phone and I looked up “Who do you call to report an unsafe driver?” There was a code that you can call from your cell phone that takes you to the highway patrol, however, that didn’t work on my Canadian cell phone when I tried. Trying to figure out who else to call, and after some discussion, we decided to call 911, at first I was a little hesitant to call because it wasn’t a full on emergency, but could have become an emergency, I dialled 911 on my cell phone, a lady picked up on the other end and said “where is the address of your emergency?” I answered “well I don’t really know, we’re following behind a truck that is driving very badly, swerving and missing cars by inches. I don’t know if he’s drunk or if he’s texting or if there’s a medical emergency, but he’s extremely unsafe on the road and needs to get off the road.” She took it very seriously thank goodness, got more information and then three-way called to the police where then I gave more information of what was going on, once the police got the information they needed they hung up l the three way call however 911 stayed on the phone with me.
It was very interesting because as we were driving down the highway every time we passed a mile marker I had to tell her what that number was. I had to tell her what speed the truck was going and she didn’t need to ask as she knew when there were near misses with other cars, as everyone in the car was saying “whoa oh my goodness that was close!”
It wasn’t long at all before the 911 dispatcher asked my friend who was driving to put on her four ways, she put them on, and I could see in the the mirror on the side of the passenger car the lights of a police car coming up. It was a very strange experience because usually when you see a car coming up with its lights on you get out of the way but this time we weren’t sure what to do so I said to the 911 dispatcher “what do I do when the police car comes up?”
She responded with “just keep driving behind the truck with your four ways on and don’t worry about getting out of the way of the police car.” So that’s what we did when the police car behind us saw our four ways he turned off his lights went around us and then went between us and the truck, where he turned his lights back on, that police car was behind that truck for more than a mili using the sirens, all its lights and horns, as well as another semi truck using his truck horn to try to get this truck to pull over, when none of that worked, the police car went beside the semi truck and gave it a small nudge with his car, it was after that, that the semi truck finally pulled over.
When we passed the window, one of the kids in the back said that he saw the driver was slumped over, I was worried at first that this was in-fact a medical emergency, but we followed this truck for over 20 miles and we were on the phone with 911 for over 12 miles, if it was in-fact a medical emergency, he would’ve ditched or crashed the semi truck long before the police arrived. I don’t wanna jump to conclusions, but I do not think it was a medical emergency.
We may never know what was the actual reason as to why this truck was driving so badly and causing so many close calls of hitting other vehicles, scaring a lot of people. If it was a medical emergency, I pray he got to help he needed. If however, he was drinking and driving a pray he looses his license and I thank God that nobody was hurt or killed tonight by this driver.
After we passed the pulled over semi truck and the police car and continued on our way home, we got to talking, everyone in the car stated how proud they were of everyone as we all had our own jobs. My friend was driving, we were so proud of how she stayed in control of the car, stayed calm and stayed behind the vehicle. We were proud of the teenagers in the back, as they stayed calm, quiet, and didn’t freak out. They were proud of me for being calm on the phone, clear and concise with giving the information that was needed.
We talked about how we were a bit hesitant to call 911 because at that moment, it wasn’t technically an emergency however, it could’ve turned into one instantly, the hesitation was only about three seconds before I called, but there were still a small one. I do believe that by making this phone call to 911 lives tonight were saved because he was taken off the road.
I want to encourage everybody that if you see something on the road that doesn’t look right and if you’re hesitant to call the police or 911 don’t be nervous, it can and will save lives.
You all made the right decisions. Good work!