(image-Daily Herald, Provo, Utah 20 Feb 2013)

This morning, 19 February 2013, after I finished a few  things around the house, I had a job to finish in Provo, Utah.  Over the past week, I have been working on repairing a wall in the Jolley Apartments, a rental owned by my wife's parents' estate.  Water damage had created some problems in the basement.  After the restoration company dried everything out, there were holes in the walls that needed to be fixed, sheetrock to repair, and sanding to be done.

Last week I did most of the patching, and yesterday the final coat of "mud" was applied.  Today's job was to sand the wall and paint it so that the new carpet pad could be applied and the carpet stretched later this week.  I thought that today would be "just another day".

Before I left for the gym to do my work-out, I said my prayers and specifically prayed for protection for each of my children and their families, as well as my immedaite family--my mother and Diane, my wife. 

Everything went well with the sheetrock repair, the sanding, and even installing the mop board.  Jordan (the renter) was working in the living room with his computer. 

"Jordan," I said.  "I need to get a new bucket of paint from The Home Depot because the paint I brought is no good."

"I was planning on going out to lunch in about twenty minutes.  Can you be back by then?"

I answered, "I should be able to, because I just need to get a gallon of Swiss Coffee paint."

"I'll wait until you get back then," replied Jordan.

I took the bad gallon of paint and put it in the back of my pickup truck.  But then, as I did so, the thought came to me. . . "Why don't I just throw the paint away?"

I went to the garbage can which was positioned against the apartment next to the stairs that let to the basement, opened the lid, tossed in the can, and closed the lid, then went directly to my vehicle and made a U-turn.  I had to back up in order to complete the U-turn because a car was parked on the other side of the street so that I was unable to complete the turn without backing up and completing the turn.

I entered Third South,made a right turn, and drove two blocks to University Avenue.  There was a yellow arrow at the light, so I had to wait for a car to come throuigh the intersecton before I could make the left turn to head south.  The Home Depot was just a few blocks away.

Three blocks from where I entered University Avenue, there is a viaduct that goes over several sets of railroad tracks where  the Provo Station for Frontrunner South between Ogden and Provo is the end of the line.  As I approached the viaduct, a large dump truck was coming north-bound over the viaduct, but it was going across the lane of traffic on my side of University Avenue.

As I slowed to a crawl, I saw the truck cross my lane of traffic, go up against the guardrail, over the guardrail at a 45 degree angle and plummet to the ground below!  Had I not had the thought to throw the paint can in the garbage, I would have been on the viaduct at the same place as the truck crossed the lane of traffic!

(image - The Daily Herald, Provo Utah, 20 February 2012: "Fatal Dump Truck Accident")

Once again, the Lord's tender mercies were made known! 

I sat somewhat in shock as I inched up the viaduct trying to get to my cell phone to call 911.  As I attempted to do so, a police car pulled in front of me blocking traffic and several cars were stopped behind me.  In a daze, I soon was able to pull into the on-coming lane of traffic that was being opened.  Several witnesses from the other side of the viaduct saw what happened, and help was immediate to the victim below.  I didn't wait to see what was going on and proceeded to The Home Depot to get the paint I needed.

After I got the paint, it was a challenge to get back to the apartment, since emergency vehicles were at the side of the viaduct, and a freight train was blocking the streets that would take me to the other side of the tracks.  I maneuvered my way through the Utah Transit Authority parking lot to the south side of the viaduct and was able to get over it with the one lane the traffic could move on. 

When I got to the apartment, I explained to Jordan what had happened, and he said, "With all the sirens I knew that something significant had happened."

By the time they had arrived at the scene, I was long gone and inside The Home Depot, so I hadn't even heard them.  I finished my painting, did some clean-up and was happy to be on my way back home.