Have you ever had an event happen to you where every single time you pass a certain landmark, you think about it? An interesting thing happened in the late afternoon on May 14, 2004 that I'll tell you about. I still think about what might have occurred had things turned out a little bit differently. The roadway you see below is on LA 26, directly between the towns of Elton and Oberlin. The road slopes downward at this point and there is a small bridge over Bayou Blue.
In heavy rains the woods flood and a swift current carries muddy water around cypress trees on the banks and backs up into a swampy area with palmettos and tupelo gums dotting the landscape. Deer hunters hunt this area heavily and loggers pull pine trees out of the surrounding woods. It is a peaceful and beautiful area, in my opinion, but things weren't peaceful on this particular afternoon.
After a long, hard day of crawfishing, I was leaving the farm and driving my GMC pickup to Jennings to sell my day's catch to a local crawfish boiling business. I smelled like fish and was dirty, but was in good spirits. My truck was loaded down. I still remember that I had 1,600 pounds of crawfish in the bed of my truck. It was loaded down and sitting heavy. I had the radio on and was singing along with a country music song. Life was good.
I looked ahead of me and to my amazement, there was a truck heading directly toward me and was halfway in my lane! He was straddling the center line and he was going fast. I was traveling about 60 miles per hour, probably a little too fast myself. I quickly assessed the situation and slowed the truck down to about 45 and pulled onto the shoulder of the road. Rocks lining the shoulder were kicked up into my fender well, making a loud clattering sound. I was trying to be very measured in my response. With a full load of crawfish, I didn't want to make any quick moves. Lots of times, in this situation, you over-compensate and end up losing control. Slow and steady...
The truck passed me by in my lane, but I was, by this time, safely off the road. I remember thinking, "Whew! that could have been bad." I also remember thinking, "What an idiot?" Or something like that. As the truck passed me by I saw smoke coming from the front of the truck along with a smell of a vehicle running hot. That was weird, but I didn't think any more of it at the time.
I got back on the road and resumed my journey to sell the day's catch. This time driving slower and being much more aware. I had driven a couple miles down the road when I spotted some debris lying in the road. I slowed down. As I drove up closer, I quickly noticed that it was not debris. It was a man! A man was lying in the road.
I noticed a Louisiana State Trooper vehicle on the shoulder a little ways down, and as I ran up to him, this man was the State Trooper. He was bleeding heavily and was unconscious, but moaning and making awful noises from his throat. His uniform was ripped up, but I saw his name on a shiny emblem above his pocket. I quickly called 911 and reported that an officer had been hit and needed medical attention ASAP. By this time other motorists arrived and we sat with the officer and tried to comfort him. We were afraid to move him out of the roadway as we were unsure of the extent of his internal or spinal injuries. I had a real sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched another human hurt very badly and not knowing what to do to help. I do remember praying for him. At long last an ambulance arrived and they rushed the officer to the hospital.
Other State Troopers arrived and began questioning us. I began piecing the story together in my mind and realized that the guy that had run me off the road was likely impaired. I told the officers what I had witnessed. They quickly took off down the road in pursuit. The intoxicated driver theory was confirmed a little while later. This guy turned out to be intoxicated. The officer was standing alongside the roadway and the speeding vehicle hit him, throwing him over the truck and into the roadway. The impact of the officer to the front of the vehicle had damaged the front grille and bumper, including the radiator and caused the coolant to leak out. That's why the vehicle was running hot and smoking. When the vehicle got too hot, the engine locked up and left the driver on the side of the road. He ran to a nearby barn to hide and was apprehended by the officers. I would assume the officers weren't too happy with him. I would assume the greeting wasn't cordial and warm.
I kept up with the injured officer's recovery process. It was touch and go for a while, but after several months, he was released from the hospital and returned to desk duty at the State Trooper headquarters in Lake Charles. I dropped by to check in on him and talked to him and let him know that we had been praying for him and were happy about his recovery. He was a very nice gentleman.
It's been almost two decades and I still think about that event every single time I pass by the intersection of LA 26 and Willis Courville Road. Every. Single. Time. It was a close call for me and an even closer call for the Officer. In the end, the Good Lord saw fit to help us both and we are both blessed.
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