Disaster takes only one small mistake. The Georgia State Patrol said that the big rig crash that shut down Interstate 75/northbound north of Interstate 575 for three hours two Mondays ago all started with one car cutting off that big rig. The giant, largely un-nimble trucks cannot react quickly and this one jack-knifed, collected several other cars in the narrow construction zone and spilled dozens of gallons of diesel fuel. The collision also knocked down the temporary wall where crews are working on the Northwest Metro Express Lanes project.
HERO trucks and GSP diverted I-75/northbound traffic onto I-575, but the lanes quickly gridlocked almost all the way back to Interstate 285. Cobb Parkway/Highway 41/northbound was even worse than I-75, with major delays from I-285 past Highway 5. Other major arteries clogged through Marietta and Kennesaw, including Barrett Parkway, which was jammed with people coming west from I-575 and trying to re-enter I-75.
Imagine if this had been a normal traffic day and not a post-Super Bowl-hangover Monday — the jams would have been monstrous and probably gridlocked I-285 in both directions.
This entire chain of events, that surely led to missed sports games, dinners and appointments, all started with one misstep. If that one person had not changed lanes in front of that tractor trailer at that very time, none of the extra delays or man hours needed to clean the mess would have transpired. One erroneous flick of the wrist literally cost thousands of dollars in damage, labor and lost productivity.
That revelation should sober us. It also should jar us from looking down to check our phones or take that bite. The fine line between normalcy and disaster should also temper our aggression behind the wheel. This traffic RED ALERT in Kennesaw was not the result of a few small mistakes leading to a larger one. There was no comedy of errors here. GSP says it was one car’s ill-timed behavior that set it off.
Georgia Department of Transportation says that the oil spill did not seep into the water supply, though the extended cleanup of the diesel prolonged the closure. GSP did not announce any deaths in the wreck. The damaged wall was a temporary barrier. This melee could have been much worse.
But the wreck still caused plenty of havoc and should remind us all to practice more mindfulness behind the wheel. One bad decision, one check of the phone, one distraction, one spike in aggression could be the last decision you ever make. And it also could make someone late for a life-changing job interview or make a GDOT HERO driver or GSP officer late for dinner with their family. We can relate to that. And we can treat others how we want to be treated.
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