Hit by big rig near Catavina on 10/15 - not the ideal vacation! Part 1

We've always told people that the biggest danger in Baja is not the storied bandidos, but the narrow open range roads and the big trucks making time.

Did we jinx ourselves?

So there we were, having finished lunch at Mama Espinozas, heading south, with ultimate goal being to spend 6 weeks in Cabo Pulmo in the East Cape. We've been going to Pulmo since 2000, and own a lot and have dear friends there. We were traveling in our 2010 Tundra 4x4, pulling our 26' Keystone Cougar. Near kilometer marker 159, about 5 miles north of Catavina, there was a sudden major jarring impact from the rear, and trailer swung toward the left (driver's side). Mark says "We've had a blowout!", and works on getting vehicle control. We were being forced into the oncoming lane, and the trailer was jacknifing foward toward the truck. Mark has been a heavy equipment operator, and I trusted he would get it under control. I wasn't scared or worried. Then Mark said, in a startled voice, "I can't get control!" Very quickly, we went off the side of the road, where there was the usual downslope, and the truck began to tip over toward the passenger side. I threw my arms over my head (not having any other helpful ideas), and then the world turned into a chaos of noise and dust and violent movement.

At some point it stopped. We're still not sure whether we rolled once or twice. I don't clearly remember Mark kicking his door open, which he had to do because it was so stuck. I do remember him opening my door, and as I got out, we both saw the blood dripping in quantity down my right arm. That was the first time Mark seemed scared. I noticed that I seemed to have good movement in my arm, so didn't think there were broken bones, and oddly no pain, even though the wound looked like a good-sized dog had ripped a 3"x3" chunk from my arm. From somewhere we found a towel to wrap my arm and slow bleeding. We were both still "dazed and confused", to put it mildly.

A blond guy ran up, and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "I expected to find dead people!" he said. We told him we didn't know what had happened. He said, "Your trailer was hit by that big rig!" He pointed behind us. We looked to the other side of the truck. There, about 20 feet from the cab of our truck, off the road, was indeed a big rig, with a lot of damage to the front bumper and grill. Stephen (as we later learned the blond guy's name; he was headed south with a surfing buddy, gave us his contact info, and offered to be a witness) told us that the big rig driver had tried to pass 3 cars at once on the straight section of road. He first passed Stephen, then the middle car, but must have miscalculated side clearance when he reached our trailer, because the right front of his truck hit the left side of our trailer. He wasn't able to slow enough to stop from pushing the trailer ahead of him, jackknifing it toward the truck, and he ultimately pushed us off the side of the road. The weird thing about this, in retrospect, was that we couldn't see that there was a big rig pushing us, because he had pushed the trailer in front of him, and the jackknifing trailer blocked our view to the rear. If we'd known there was a big rig back there, we would have been a hell of a lot more scared as the truck went out of control.

The big rig driver, named Paco, didn't appear to be injured. I asked him, "Como estas?", and he said "Asustado." (scared) Later, someone who knew him personally told me that she had asked him, "Why did you try to pass like that?", and he replied, "I don't know."

In short order, two Catavina Municipal Police arrived. But they said that we had to wait for the Federales to arrive to do the accident report, and it might take two hours for them to arrive from San Quintin. Two trucker friends of Paco, who apparently were caravaning with him, arrived - they had been waiting for him in Catavina, and when he didn't artive, and then didn't answer his radio, they backtracked to find him. One of these drivers was bilingual, which was a great help. I'm usually able to speak enough Spanish to handle most situations, but am not fluent, and since I was dealing with a badly cut arm, as well a lot of pain in my head and my back, I wasn't at my most focused. Mark speaks virtually no Spanish, so it helped tremendously having a bilingual person there. And the other trucker had some first aid training. We dug our never-before-used First Aid Kit out from under our truck seat, and the trucker put on gloves, used the antiseptic wipes to clean the wound as best possible, and did a great job binding it in gauze. This normally would be something Mark would do, but he was feeling pretty shaky, and relieved to turn it over to someone else.

Mark had found one of our beach chairs in the scattered wreckage, as well as a damaged but semi-functional beach umbrella, so I could sit down in the shade (it was 85-90 degrees). Someone brought over a baggy of ice to put on the rapidly swelling aching lump on my forehead.

A number of other people driving by stopped and asked how they could help. We appreciated every one of them. One offered to get a message to our friend Richard (Ricardo), in Cabo Pulmo, as soon as she got to where there was a signal.

After about an hour, feeling less dazed, I got up to walk to the back of the truck, and saw the wreckage of the trailer for the first time. And now understood Mark's look of devastation. Our trailer, which we had bought new less than two years before, was decimated. I almost cried then. But there was too much to do. I couldn't help with any lifting, but was able to help Mark figure out in what part of the trailer our most expensive and valued items were: laptop, dive cameras, good binoculars....and the only copy of our fideicomiso that we have!

By this time, the towing guys had arrived. One of the truck drivers offered to let us use one of their huge empty containers to store our stuff, and we could lock it and keep the key until we came back to get the salvaged items. This seemed to be our best option, trusting in the good will of these folks - there was some risk, but we didn't have a lot of other options, given that I in particular needed to get to a doctor asap, and we were in a cell phone signal desert. All of the able guys around helped carry items into the container, peeling away entire walls of the collapsed trailer to access different areas.

The bilingual trucker suggested we give the towing guys a tip for their help, suggesting 200 pesos. We gave them 400. Given how much pain Mark was in, and my limitations, their help had been tremendous.

After 2 hours, the Federales arrived. They said an ambulance was on the way to take us to San Quintin. The bilingual trucker said quietly to me, "anything that's valuable, take with you in the ambulance. If you leave it here, it will be stolen, that's certain." Much appreciated guidance, and as it turned out, completely accurate.

There was a territorial dispute between the municipal police and the federal police about who should write the report. Now that the Federales were there, they said the municipal police were supposed to write up the accident. The 4 officers moved away to discuss further amongst themselves.

The accident had occurred at about 2pm. Now it was getting dark. The ambulance arrived...about 6pm, 4 hours after the accident. They wanted us to rush to get into the ambulance, with our most valuable belongings...and our 18-year-old blind Maine Coon cat, Jerry! Jerry had been in the back seat of the truck when it rolled, and his long thick hair was covered in dust, but he seemed uninjured, albeit disoriented and nervous. He got packed into his cat carrier for transport on the ambulance.

Mark got into the ambulance after the tech had done another cleaning and re-wrap of my arm wound. The two federales were back in the midst of the wreck, apparently writing the report. The tow guys were still there. And the last thing Mark saw before entering the ambulance was five more men emerge from the shadows and descend onto the scene of the wreck.

To be continued....

(Having trouble getting photos down to 250k limit without getting too pixilated.





[Edited on 11-1-2016 by CatCrazyJulie]

[Edited on 11-1-2016 by CatCrazyJulie]

Quote: Originally posted by bajario

Wow!! So glad you're able to tell the story. From the looks of it something more than luck was watching over you three.

Quote: Originally posted by Sweatpeas

Glad you guys are alright. Where's Coco when you need him?

We were probably a little outside Coco's rescue radius

Quote: Originally posted by soulpatch

Frightening. Glad you are able to tell your story.

Grateful--Grateful

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Thank you for sharing this Julie... So scary when it is totally beyond any fault of control of your own that caused this. Antonio (Baja Cactus) of the Halcones del Desierto (Desert Hawks) emergency rescue service of El Rosario posted about the accident with photos: https://www.facebook.com/HalconesdelDesierto/

Quote: Originally posted by BajaBlanca

whoaaaaaaaaaaaaa you are two lucky kids. Thanks for sharing, the information is invaluable. I am guessing it would be Antonio's Baja Cactus ambulance people who came? Those photos are horrifying....the stuff of nightmares. Who was the photographer? Presumably you are in front of the beautiful sea as you write, relaxing. snorkeling. fishing. breathing.

Quote: Originally posted by BajaCactus

That area around Cataviña is very isolated and difficult when it comes to accidents. Julie mentioned their accident happened around 2:00pm. We got the first call from the Federal Police requesting an ambulance at 4:18pm, that was over two hours after the incident... too long. ..... Antonio Muñoz Desert Hawks Fire and Rescue Non-Profit Organization

Antonio - Hello! So you were the driver of the ambulance that day? I remember your face clearly, but my mind was not holding onto names that day. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

It was unnerving at the time, being dropped off in El Rosario, with no doctor on duty because it was a weekend, and no rental car agency or means of going north to a hospital. One of the volunteers was very helpful in finding us a hotel room at Baja Cactus, and taking me to a nearby market for supplies. I will write up the rest of the story about what happened after we got to El Rosario...might be 2 or 3 more episodes.

One request: do you have any input on the Halcones del Desierto facebook page? If so, it would be great if there could be a correction to the description of the accident. On the Halcones del Desierto facebook page post about the accident, it says that the big rig/trailer driver was northbound when the accident occurred. Actually, the trailer was headed southbound, attempting to pass 3 vehicles in a row. After he passed the first two vehicles, he got to us, and hit our trailer from behind, and ultimately pushed us off the road. That's why the photos don't show much damage to the front of the truck (and why the engine still started!): the damage on the truck is primarily from rolling over after we were pushed off the road. The roll knocked the camper shell off the top of the truck, including the kayak rack and our two kayaks...which ended up under the front tires of the big rig/trailer.

Quote: Originally posted by BajaCactus

Julie... we spoke briefly over the phone when you were at the clinic in El Rosario. I tried to reach you at BajaCactus the next morning to see if you needed any additional help and/or assistance but you had already left. I figured you may be heading to the local Bus Station so I called the lady in charge (who happens to be my sister in law) and asked her to help you out in anyway if you happened to show up. If there is anything you need down here to follow up on your accident please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for sharing your story and please give my best to Mark (Facebook quick report has been corrected... thank you). Antonio Muñoz Desert Hawks Fire and Rescue Non-Profit Organization [Edited on 11-1-2016 by BajaCactus]

Quote: Originally posted by Skipjack Joe

Well thank you lucky stars. But I would think about what to do to reduce your risks. There's always the chance of being hit by a boracho, something out of your control. But these trucks are the greatest danger on that highway.

Quote: Originally posted by wlynch43

Terrible. So sory about your terrible accident. Someone was watching over you for sure. Never been down baja til recently and was more than concerned about the narrow road and large trucks. As unusual as it sounds felt one would be safer on a motorcycle than a vehicle due to the narrow roads and ability to accelerate away from danger. Hope all works out well for you.

I checked on you after the accident
you were shaken but OK

not that it makes a big difference, but it seems your trailer had been rear ended. Weird, but it looks like the right rear - that would explain why your trailer moved (was pushed) into the other lane.
Semi may have been trying to pull in behind you after passing the other 2 vehicles and hit you.

Neither your left rear corner nor your trailer's left side has a scratch.

Hope things are working out for you and your injuries are healing fast.

I have had my trailer hit by an oncoming semi and know the nightmare that can follow. I was lucky to be able to keep my truck and the trailer on the road. The semi overturned.