Question:
Late Tuesday night I was on my way to Chicago from Minneapolis. I was strollin' down I-94. I made it to Eau Claire WI about midnight and took a nap. (yes I waited to the last minute to leave and had no nap before I left )
I got up just before sun up and hit the road.
At the 100 / 101 mile marker, s/b (I-90/94 just north of Portage WI), there had been an accident during the night around 1:30 am.
One truck had rear-ended another. The ENTIRE TRACTOR was demolished so bad that I couldn't even see what kind of truck it was! I don't know if that guy lived, but I'd bet he didn't.
The truck that was rear-ended (ATS out of St. Cloud MN), was hit hard enough to completely remove the rear axle from under the trailer!
I tried to find a link to the story online, but was unsucessful.
Seeing this accident was a very humbling experience for me. If I had taken a nap before I left, would I have been involved? I don't know, but it sure made me think.
I guess that what I'm trying to say is,
Be aware of what you are doing at all times and DO NOT FOLLOW too close!
I've seen too many bad wrecks lately.
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"I've always been crazy, but it's kept me from going insane!" (from Waylon Jennings)
"The feel of the wheel delivers me, from a life where I don't wanna be." (from Joe Stampley)

Answer:
Here's how it might have happened. Sounds like an accident I saw a few months ago just past the Giant Truck Stop on I-40 NM.
A truck had stopped on the shoulder on a slight right curve in the road.
Because of the curve behind him, the traffic coming down the hill was in the blind spot behind his trailer.
He pulled out onto the lane from a complete stop, perhaps never attempting a second look in his left mirror.
Two trucks came barrelling down the right lane at him.
The first managed to swerve to the left lane in time.
The second, probably following so close he couldn't SEE why the first was changing lanes, didn't.
The first (and last) thing he saw when the truck in front moved over, was the rear-end of the merging truck.
He hit so fast and hard it pushed the cab back into the trailer. The engine - what was left of it - was where the catwalk would be.
My first impression was, "why are the trucks so short?" Of course, they'd been squished together so hard they compressed together like accordians.
What really makes something like this hit home, is seeing the driver's atlas, food, papers, clothes....scattered all over the median. One moment he was listening to the radio driving along with all his stuff. A fraction of a second later, he's been crushed into a blob of mush and his stuff is blowing in the wind.....
The road was open again by the time I went by. it was the only time I remember passing an acident when the cb was quiet. Lots of trucks passing by, but everyone, as if attending a funeral, kept quiet. There was nothing to say.
[This message was edited by Shuffler on May 23, 2003 at 3:32.]