When Brick Meets Brick...

An interesting story this morning out of Little Rock, AR--Truck Overturns, Lands On Top Of Volvo

By KTHV-TV

LITTLE ROCK, AR -- A Little Rock couple is lucky to be alive, following an accident on Interstate 430 Friday morning. Photojournalist Oran Hardcastle captured these dramatic photos.

Traffic was backed up for miles northbound on the interstate after an 18-wheeler carrying a load of bricks lost control and toppled on top of a small Volvo.

Police say the tractor-trailer smashed the car while trying to negotiate a turn near the Cantrell exit.

"I was coming down the hill and was switching lanes from the left lane to the right lane, trying to be careful and everything and the load shifted, the load of bricks shifted," commercial driver Colin Gilbert says.

Gilbert is a driver for a Kansas City trucking company. He says the additional weight of the bricks caused the truck to roll right on top of the couple's car, throwing bricks across the highway.

The concrete median stopped the vehicles from moving into oncoming traffic.

Remarkably, the couple in the Volvo walked away with hardly a scratch.

"They were moving about on their own. They were transported as a precautionary and a little clean up that's about it," State Trooper First Class Michael Felcher says. [...]

The automotive industry touts the Volvo as being one of the safest vehicles on the market. Emergency crews on the scene say they believe the safety features on the car are what saved the couple's life. [...]

The website didn't have any photos, so I was curious as to what year and model Volvo that was. I've sent a quick e-mail to the producer just to satisfy my own curiosity. That's probably one of those stories that'll make it's way onto the Volvo Saved My Life Club website.

UPDATE 11/8/05--Well, I never got a response back from the station who originally broadcast the story, but by way of WXIA in Atlanta, a recitation of the events, except THIS time they have a photo of the wreck--that would be an S40 or S60 S80 model underneath there.