This past Friday, Mrs. Narc and I begrudgingly headed south to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky for a weekend of sport climbing. I say begrudgingly because neither of us were overly excited about going. I hadn’t been to the Red in a year so I should have been especially pumped about going, but for some reason I couldn’t find my mojo. We were so apathetic about the trip that we put off making the decision (and packing) until Friday morning before we left for work. At about 5:45 am on Friday when I should have been leaving for work I spontaneously decided that we should definitely go; we quickly packed and committed to leaving for Kentucky after work.
The normally brutal drive through Chicago was relatively smooth given the holiday weekend, and we were making good time on our 500+ mile drive. As we turned onto the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway, "The Bert" to Mrs. Narc and me, I decided to try and sleep the remaining 30 minutes of the drive while Mrs. Narc took the wheel.
Comfortably asleep, I was startled to be awakened by Mrs. Narc yelling, "OH MY GOD BRIAN!". Groggy and confused, I woke up enough to realize that we were driving fast so that meant we were still on The Bert. In the next instant our Honda Civic had collided with something in the road and the car was thrust into the air. The whole vehicle filled with smoke and the bright lights of a passerby’s headlights (the same headlights that prohibited Mrs. Narc from seeing the motorcycle in the road or the rolled pickup truck) as we careened down the road. Miraculously, Mrs. Narc kept the car going straight and it ground to a halt some yards past the point of impact; had we left our lane, we would have met the same fate as the motorcycle – a metal guardrail and/or a significant drop-off.
Bemused and in serious shock, we both began to attempt to make sense of what had just happened to us. The inside of the car was a confusing mess with both air bags deployed and smoke from the busted engine filling the car. Fortunately, neither of us was injured; we got out of the car to see if we couldn’t figure out what exactly it was that we had hit.
Long story short, another motorist had been driving along with two motorcycles in the bed of his pickup truck. For whatever reason he had lost control and flipped his truck several times in the median, spilling at least one of the motorcycles into our lane of The Bert. Due to several factors the motorcycle was not visible until mere seconds before we came along and was almost indecipherable as a motorcycle. We hit it going somewhere between 60 and 70 mph. Needless to say our car is irreparably damaged. The gush of engine fluid spilling out of the car as we exited told us as much. The miraculous part is that neither of us sustained any physical injuries. This alone defies all logic; we’re extremely lucky to say the very least.
We were also fortunate to have a number of good friends camping nearby who came to help retrieve our belongings from the side of the road. Seeing familiar faces was just what we needed. Thanks to their help and support we managed to have a relatively normal weekend considering the circumstances. We climbed both days in the sweltering Kentucky humidity, ate some fantastic pizza and made it home in one piece.
Big thanks go out to the Nimmer’s, Kevin R and Old School for all the help!
glad to hear you are ok, that is scary. i have driven that bit of road many times very late at night
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That’s a little bit scary. I am glad to hear that you are ok and still had the chance to enjoy the weekend-
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Brian, so so glad you guys are alright!! It’s amazing that you both came out of it with no injuries.
I’m sure I’ll see you around soon. I’ve just started training again and should start climbing again in the next week or so. We’ll have to actually go climbing instead of just talking about it.
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Glad to hear the two of you are alright considering what happened!
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Sheesh! Glad you’re OK.
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Damn! Good to hear you guys are ok! Totaling your car is no fun! The worst thing can be remembering what happened right before the crash. Lizzy and I both had vivid slo-mo replays of our accidents.
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That is exactly right Luke. I forgot to mention how we have each relived that 5 seconds roughly 1,000 times since Friday night.
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wow, at least you guys are ok though (and still got in a weekend of climbing as a small consolation)
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deang! good to hear you are ok!
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Holy shit that is crazy! I have been dieing to hear what happend since you sent me that message on Sat. That road is crazy I came within inches of hitting a huge Buck chillin in the middle of my lane a long while back. Glad you guys are ok my friend!
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I’m kinda glad that Tony and I didn’t come to the Red with you guys again this Labor Day.
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I’d heard about “an accident at 1am” from some guys who were stuck behind the wreckage for quite a while – a bit uncanny to read it here. Glad to hear that you two weren’t hurt. Any news on the pickup owner?
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Yeah, the road was basically closed coming toward Miguel’s from the West for a couple of hours. Heard from one of our rescuers who was staying at Miguel’s that there was a large group of people setting up camp when he returned. Sorry about that!!
No word on the other guy although his injuries did not appear life threatening at the scene. He did leave in an ambulance though.
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Yo, I have some pics that I’ll shoot your way once I get home from work and have a chance to put them on my computer.
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wow, glad to hear you two are both alright!
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Wow, I’m so glad to hear you two are ok. What an awful night. We had some hard times on that road too, though it usually involved suddenly remembering what we had left back in Indy. Yours – much worse!
Walking away from an accident that awful could mean you and your wife have somehow acquired the “invincibility” super-power! Should be great for climbing!
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crazy. so fortunate that you both are unhurt. i am happy that you guys are ok.
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Very glad to hear you’re okay. Big positive vibes your way!
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holy crap! wonder if the truck guy swerved for a deer or something? glad to hear you are each ok! how was the guy from the truck?
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I’m not quite sure what happened to him but the theory on the ground was that he might have fallen asleep at the wheel. I believe he was OK although he did have to go to the hospital because of cuts suffered during the accident.
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Good to hear you are ok.
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Glad you guys are okay and to survive a 50 mph direct hit, from yoru description you when over the bike (anything else would have been much much less desirable). Amazing that you could still climb after that! So how is the insurance stuff gonna work out? Is it new car time?
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Climbing was the only time I wasn’t reliving the accident in my mind. Apparently concentrating on not getting more pumped was all I could handle thinking about at one time.
It is looking like new car time but it will take a bit for things to be processed by the insurance company. We should know more next week.
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Like whoa. Glad to hear both of you are OK. This reminds me of the 9 years I spent as an East Coast road-tripping sport climber, which is even more relevant now as I contemplate a move to Washington D.C. in October.
My 2 best friends were in a horrific accident leaving the New one weekend in August of 1997. One didn’t make it and the other broke 27 bones and spent the next year recovering.
Everyone be careful out there on the roads!
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I still feel like doom is around every corner while driving thanks to this accident…
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