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By CHRIS SCHNEIDMILLER; Times Leader Staff Writer
Saturday, October 10, 1998     Page: 2A

WILKES-BARRE- There was no time to stop and nowhere to go but straight
ahead.
   
So Ron Yocum aimed his 18-wheeler at the thin space between two jacknifed
tractor trailer trucks and hoped for the best. But there wasn’t nearly enough
room, and his truck slammed into the others, joining the two-dozen-car pileup
on Interstate 81 near Nuangola on Friday afternoon.
    Yocum remained trapped in the cab for 30 minutes before emergency personnel
freed him. Once safely out of his truck, he saw damaged lines of crunched
vehicles stretched out in front of him, and rescue workers attending to the
injured.
   
“What a freakin’ mess, I’ll tell you that,” Yocum said while waiting to be
treated at the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital emergency room. “I’m just all
bruised up. Back pain, arm pain, neck pain, back pain. It’s from being bounced
around, I guess.”
   
The 54-year-old Associated Wholesalers trucker from Womelsdorf has seen
serious crashes in 38 years of trucking. But he’s never been in one.
   
“Basically I hope nobody was seriously hurt. Every piece of equipment can
be replaced,” Yocum said.
   
Yocum was heading to his company’s headquarters in Robesonia when he
crested a hill near southbound mile marker 161 and saw the two jacknifed
trucks only 200 to 300 feet ahead.
   
One truck’s cab rested against the right-side guard rail, the trailer
stretching into the roadway. The cab of the other truck faced north, its
trailer blocking the highway. Only two feet of air separated the trucks.
   
A small pickup truck drifted in front of Yocum, then back into the left
lane. Yocum hit his brakes, but the slick road made stopping in time
impossible.
   
“I had nowhere to go but between the two of them. It was that or run the
pickup truck clean over,” Yocum said.
   
The moments before and after the crash are clear in Yocum’s mind. What
happened at the time of impact is a mystery.
   
“They asked me if it knocked me out or if I hit the steering wheel. I don’t
think it did, but I don’t know,” Yocum said. “It happened so fast.”
   
After his truck stopped, Yocum could hear vehicles colliding behind him.
The front end of a pickup truck was jammed beneath his trailer. A paramedic
told Yocum the driver of the pickup walked away from the crash.
   
Yocum was also able to walk away from his truck, stepping on the exposed
engine of one of the other trucks after being extricated by firefighters.
   
“I’m not a strong believer in seat belts. When I’m in the truck, I use it,
but not always in my own vehicle,” Yocum said. “If I didn’t have it on, I’d be
out through the windshield.”
   
The Times Leader/