A Utah mom and her two children have experienced what police are calling "an absolute miracle." Heather Slack was reportedly driving west on the icy I-80 with her son and daughter on Tuesday afternoon when the unimaginable occurred: while attempting to cross over into another lane to get away from a large tanker truck -- and who hasn't been there and done that? -- her vehicle reportedly hit a patch of ice, and she and her children wound uppinned beneath the huge tanker.
Slack says she didn't realize at first what had happened and had no idea they were actually trapped under the truck. In fact, she and her children began screaming because they thought they were falling off a cliff. They said they could hear noises but didn't know what they were.
As it turns out, the fuel tanker dragged their car 200 yards before it was able to stop. The horrific sounds the family had heard were those of metal screeching across the pavement.
The car's roof didn't survive the impact of the truck's weight and was smashed, but here's where the first little miracle comes into play: "pods" formed around the mom and her two kids that protected them from injury.
And now for miracle #2: all three victims of this frightening crash emerged from their vehicle -- with the help of an emergency crew, of course -- totally unscathed. Not a scratch, not a bruise. Paramedics checked them out and they walked away from the scene without even having to step foot inside of a hospital.
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Police say the accident may have happened because Slack was driving too fast for the icy conditions on the road. I don't even want to think about the fact that the truck was carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel. This really could have been an absolutely heartbreaking tragedy.
This amazing story should serve as a reminder to us of how important it is to drive at a snail's pace when the roads are icy. Black ice is pretty much transparent -- especially at night -- and can send your car flying at a speed that you simply can't control. So happy this family survived and can celebrate their New Year together.
Have you ever been involved in bad car accident?
Image via Cat Wendt/Flickr