this past October, I found myself in a small Kentucky town I'd never been to before on a family trip. we grabbed a hotel for a few nights and saw what we came to see. the morning there, we checked out of our hotel and started loading the vehicle with all our bags. the fog was so thick you could almost cut it. once everything was loaded we started heading west on a two lane road that would lead to our highway back home. if you've never been to the area, some of the roads are literally cut into mountains so when you're driving you basically have a huge rock wall on each side of the road. that mixed with the fog and dim twilight was a stage set for disaster. as we entered the mountains, a big red pickup was tailgating us hard. the first chance he got, he passed. evidently he was in such a big hurry he didn't care about anything. one of those arrogant drivers...anyway, he passed again illegally. he got into the oncoming traffic lane in a "no passing zone" and flew by about 7 or 8 cars. one of which he forced onto the shoulder while merging back in to avoid a head on collision. all I was thinking was "what an asshole" as his taillights dimmed out in the distant fog. then suddenly traffic slowed. another lane had opened up to our right and everyone took that lane. we proceeded in our original lane slowly until we came upon a coal truck stopped dead in the road. wondering what was going on, we look around our own vehicle to find a huge debris field surrounding the area. what happened? why isn't this truck moving? I looked to my mom (sitting to my left) and something caught my eye just outside her window. it was a very faint orange glow that seemed to be dancing its way around the fog which tried to conceal it. "he wrecked out!" I yelled. "huh? what?" nobody had figured it out yet. "don't move the car" I told the driver. I exited the rear passenger side and slowly made my way towards the glow. the same red truck I saw earlier had been speeding through the fog, rear ended a slow moving coal truck so hard that the driver of the pickup had been ejected from the vehicle and is now wedged between his truck and the rock wall on the side of the road. the orange glow? fire...as I pieces together what had happened I realized that the coal truck driver was standing next to the asshole who caused all this. his face bloodied and dripping everywhere. the coal driver was trying to wake him. I doubted his survival intensely. as I approached, I noticed he is very much alive. slipping in and out of consciousness, moaning and whining of pain here and there. the fire was growing. I told the coal driver to grab him by the arms and pull him out before they both went up in flames. he tried but failed. this guy had to have been 300 pounds Ans this point was dead weight due to shock. I tried to help. I grabbed an arm, the coal driver grabbed another and we drug him along the pavement probably 500 feet or so away from the truck. "what's your name?" my mom asked. trembling, he replied "j-j-jimmy." "was it worth it Jimmy?" was the only thing I could think to say. before he could answer, I looked back at the truck. we had set him down about five seconds ago and at that point the entire truck was up in flames including where he had been laying next to it. the ground was on fire and it had begun to creep up the mountain. I'd never seen a blaze like that in my life. then, just as suddenly as the other events had unfolded, BANG!! BOOM!! the genius had a gun in his truck and well...fire and ammunition don't mix. I stood there on the side of the road with the coal truck driver and three members of my family for what seemed like a year until the fire department arrived with the police and ems. he was taken away to the hospital, our statements were taken and that was it. come to find out he was married and had a daughter. she was 4 years old at the time. guess why he was in such a hurry...he was running late for work. it's strange how things work out sometimes. if we had not been there at that exact moment that guy would have burned to death about 5 seconds later. we were the only ones who stopped until about a half hour after we pulled him from the wreck. he would have been gone. done. and for what? he created a war zone within a serene mountain morning and disrupted a bunch of lives. please don't misunderstand me here. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. but my confession is this: I'm not convinced he deserved to live. I've never told anyone that before. just from the little information I had on him during the short time we were around each other. he endangered the lives of other recklessly without giving a shit. but I couldn't just walk away. I couldn't do it.