How smoking saved my life... maybe.

Today, an overpass on HWY 19 (Montreal-Laval) collapsed; injuring 5 and possibly killing 2, yet I don't know if there are any dead as they have yet to get to two of the cars crushed in the horrible accident. Now normally this would be of little concern to my existence; except of course, my thoughts for those hurt or possibly killed. However, HWY 19 is the route I take to go to the office every day. And today, a Saturday, I decided to go to the office. I left the house @ 12:30ish and embarked on my normal route, Papineau and then HWY19 north; but before I left I decided to have a cigarette (yeah yeah, I know... I'm trying to quit). 5 minutes... a five minutes that probably saved my life... anyway... driving up HWY19 in Laval, all of a sudden I see about 50 cars all stopped in what looks to be a huge traffic jam... on a Saturday? Then in the distance, at the overpass, I see smoke rising up from the other lane.. Ok, so there was a bad accident in the other lane... people are probably just rubber necking in our lane slowing down traffic. Shouldn't be too long. The traffic slowly moves forward... oh shit... there's a blue truck that seems to be standing on end in my lane... shit... traffic moves forward a bit.. there's a guard rail in the road... my god, the truck must have had an accident and got knocked off the overpass... traffic moves forward... holy shit... half the bridge is missing! What the fuck! The Montreal police had just finished setting up a cordon and was slowly diverting traffic off the HWY in to suburbia (the SQ wasn't even on scene and the fire trucks were just arriving on scene)... it was only when I was on the on ramp did really see the amplitude of the situation... it was unreal... and as I continued on my way to the office, the thoughts of how that could have been me came flooding in to my mind. All the little things, that I did that morning, which prolonged my departure from home came flooding in to my mind... all the thoughts of what it could have been... what would I have done had I been there as it crumbled?... What would I have done had I arrived just after it had crumbled?... would I have been able to get to the people in the burning car? What if I was closer to the upside down blue van? Would I have pulled the driver out knowing that there were possibly people trapped in the burning car? Strange things go through your mind when confronted with such an awesome tragedy... Sadness... pseudo-heroism... weirdness... anger...

HOW CAN A FUCKING BRIDGE JUST COLLAPSE!!!! WHAT THE FUCK!

Life is fragile... the world is unpredictable... it can all change in an instant....

Now, I just hope that the people trapped in the two cars crushed under the overpass are ok.

here is a TV report on the accident...
TV REPORT