March 24-accident with Mercedes

We were on our way to NIH for many tests for Gary's re-staging.  I was in my car and a few miles in front of Gary who was in a Mercedes SLK 280, a very small black car, but very cute!

Gary was on 495 North, inner loop, heading towards Bethesda.  He had just past I66 (entrance ramp from I66 to 495 is on the left) and Gary was in the far right lane.  He observed an 18 wheeler entering 495 from I66 and watched as it crossed 3 lanes of traffic and was heading towards him.  Gary was honking his horn and flashing his lights, to no avail, as the trucker had no idea that he was there.

The truck continued on over into Gary's lane and Gary tried to speed up to get by him, but no such luck.  The front right wheel of the 18 wheeler hooked onto the driver's side of Gary's car.  Literally, they were hooked together traveling down the road.  Finally the trucker realized what was going on and stopped, I'm sure the noise must have been deafening!

The whole driver's side of Gary's car was dented and torn apart, but Gary walked away without a scratch!  Well he didn't walk away too quickly as he was pinned in between the truck and the Jersey wall.  The EMS suggested he try to take the convertible top down and have him climb out that way.  It worked!

Traffic was backed up for several miles because of the accident, and even made the news.

Gary called me right after it happened and said 'Jane, I've been in an accident but I am okay, a truck hit me'.  At that point I didn't know if the car was drivable so I drove back thinking i might be able to help him and drive him back to NIH.  As I drove past the scene, that is when I found out that it was an 18 wheeler... I couldn't believe it! 

Now what is even more amazing, the car was drivable and he made it to NIH in plenty of time for his appointment.  After the tests he drove to the Mercedes dealer and turned the car in and got a loaner.  We were afraid the car was totalled, but luckily it was only $5000 worth of damage and is being repaired now.

Here I am being very analytical about this, but when I think about what could have happened I begin to cry.  What an amazingly lucky man he is!