Ok we went to Cedar City for our annual fishing trip, it was fun and I will put pictures of that on tomorrow. We ate with his family and were headed back home and got to the Payson exit (which is about 5 minutes from the house). In that part of the freeway there is a hill before you come to the exit so you cant see anything until you are over the hill. The speed limit is 75 which means that people are going about 85 so Todd and I came up over the hill and I noticed that the car in front of us swerved, I looked down and there was the back of a metal horse trailer in the lane. Yes fully intact with the handle and ladder on and everything. I cant remember what I said to him but he swerved to the right to miss hitting the car that swerved in front of us, we didn't make the turn and ran over the trailer door which made us lose total control of the car. To correct he turned the other direction (on 2 wheels) and we hit the gravel on the shoulder which made us lose control again and spun us out. We ended up doing a 180 across 2 lanes of on-coming traffic and landed in the far lane facing on-coming traffic.
Now while we are in the 180 spin it is totally true what they say, it was like slow motion. I looked over at Todd and reached out and grabbed his arm, he looked at me and I kinda felt like I was floating (it could have been the pee in my pants that gave me that buoyant feeling) all you could hear was loud screeching and the smell of burnt tires and brakes was crazy strong! So we come to a complete stop in this lane, the opposite direction of traffic and a huge white F350 truck pulling a trailer is the first car over the hill and about 2 feet from us. I really thought that was it so I put my head back and closed my eyes and was ready for it. They swerve to miss us only by about 2 inches and fly to the side, this gives Todd just enough time to throw it into gear and hit the gas. It was a good thing he did because directly behind the truck coming over the hill was a huge semi truck. It was hauling over the hill and saw us sitting there, he hit his brakes, Todd jerked the wheel as hard as he could and the semi went in between us and the white truck. You could not have fit your hand in-between the front of our car and the semi. Now if that weren't enough we were still facing the wrong way and all of these cars flying over the top were trying to dodge the metal and some were hitting it and flying out of control. We were sitting ducks with no where to go. We dodged 2 more oncoming vehicles and then there was a bang on our window but we couldn't move. I really am not sure why but I couldn't even turn my head. Todd kept asking me if I was ok and I snapped to. The people knocking on the window were from the white truck that almost creamed us, she kept asking if we were ok and Todd told them to move so we could back up and get out of the way. The people said they would go and try to stop traffic so people wouldn't hit the metal or us and Todd told me as soon as there is an opening get out of the car and go to the shoulder (because it was all on my side) I didn't want to leave him in the car alone but I did what he said. He was pinned in the car because we were up against the on-ramp so he couldn't open his door to get out. I jumped out when I had a chance and went to the guard rail. Todd drove backwards trying to dodge more metal and cars. I ran up to try and help the people stop traffic so he could turn around and get out of there. Before I took off to help them I noticed a young Hispanic girl on the other side of the freeway and she looked shaken and her eyes were huge. I ran over to her and she was trying to dial her phone and was shaking. I asked her if she was ok and she kept saying I almost hit you, I almost hit you. She was the car behind us that when we went into our 180 spin she came about an inch from t-boning us into the white truck! I made sure she was ok and then went to stop traffic for Todd. He made the u-turn and got to safety. The woman in the white truck had already called the highway patrol and came running back to us, By this time I was a little sick and shaking. She ran up to me and said I couldn't have your faces be the last thing I saw. She said we looked terrified and she had a pretty good angle only being about 2 feet from us at 80mph. She said if they would have had the trailer loaded there is no way they could have stopped and it would have been them on us and then the semi. The patrolman got there and we told him what happened. He said that was easy a 5 car pile up minimum and he didn't know how no one was killed. He asked if the car was ok and Todd said yes but he went to check it out and crazy as it sounds we didn't have a blown tire or even a flat tire and not a scratch on the car. The trooper just shook his head in disbelief and the woman said again how she didn't want our faces burnt into her brain and was so glad the trailer was empty.
I give good driving points to Todd, if he wouldn't have pulled the car the other way we would have gone into the other side of the freeway with 2 lanes of southbound traffic (there was no guard rail to stop us)! This was hands down the most terrifying moment of my life. I really thought it was our time to go. The trooper said he doesn't know how we are alive. We got home and Todd just came over and hugged me, I don't know for how long, but it was much needed. It was an unreal experience and when we got back into the car I looked at him and said I cant believe I didn't pee my pants, he looked at me and said I was thinking about how we just paid our first life insurance premium :) I am beyond grateful and thankful and any other word you could think of. I'm honestly not sure how we are here right now but we are and I have finally stopped shaking! Oh and Dad, I checked and the only skids are the big black ones we left on the freeway!
