Randy Arthur Bradley
1950 - 2011
I know I have been behind in my posts again, but this has been a
very intense and emotional time for my family and I. From my previous posts you
know that my mother died in April 2011 after an illness in which my brother and
I cared for her. In August 2011, my uncle (her brother) was killed in a
horrendous auto accident involving two 18-wheelers. Until now we were advised
not to talk about the accident. This past week we mediated and settled with one
of the trucking companies. As for the other trucking company?... They don't
feel like they are responsible for dumping hundreds of gallons of Sodium
Hydroxide (lye) on my uncle. We think they are. We are not motivated by money.
There is no amount in which it would restore the relationship we have lost with
our loved one. However; money is the only avenue in which we can hold them
accountable for such a tragedy. We as a family would like inform the public
to the danger of what is traveling on the highway with them, and how it could
impact their life as it did ours.
It is very hard for me to put in words everything my family and
I have endured this past 10 months. But if it saves one life it will be worth
any tears I cry as I write this.
Last August I was at my mother's house trying to clear up some
of my Mother's affairs. We had her house on the market and there were details
to take care of. It was not a good day to began with, as it would have been her
70th birthday. In the afternoon the area had a power outage. After I called the
power company and found that power would not be restored until 2am. I called my Uncle Randy. You
see, Randy was not the holiday type uncle. He never had kids of his own. So
every kid in the family was like his own child to him. He was 10 when I was
born. He has held the capacity of Uncle, Father, Brother and most of all, my
friend. We hung out and worked together, so it was only natural for me to call
him. I think he needed a diversion from grief also because he suggested we go
to the Casinos in Shreveport while we waited for them to restore power on an
extremely hot August day. In not to long Randy arrived at my Mother's and I
rode with him to Shreveport. We spend most of that time hanging out together
playing the same machine and rooting for each other to get the jackpot. At shortly
after midnight we went to the casino restaurant since all we had consumed for several hours was coke and coffee.
I have to pause here and tell you about our dining experience, since it describes the way Randy was his whole life. We sat and placed our
order, then Randy left for the restroom. There was an older lady dining alone
in the booth behind me. She had just gotten her appetizer of onion rings. As
Randy passed, he smiled and told her "Those onion rings look awesome,
young lady" Needless to say, while he was gone the lady came over to me
and asks to share her onion rings with him. This was a common occurrence with
Randy. He never met a stranger. And I have never seen anyone NOT respond to
him, he was just so happy go lucky, you couldn't help but like him.
When we were though eating we left and returned to Mother's
house. We arrived just before 2am. Once there, we found that the power was
still not on. So I called the power company again. As I listened to their
canned recording for the new service restore time, Randy said he was going to
the house and I responded that I would be right behind him. In only about a minute I was told that the estimated time of
repair was now 4am. So I went up stairs, locked the door and then drove out of
the drive that Randy had left less that 5 minutes before. There is no doubt
that we will take the same route. I-20 is a common route for our family because
it connects all of the small towns in the area where a majority of my family
lives. So once on I-20 I set my cruise for 65.
As I neared the truck stop on the east side of Longview, traffic
slowed and came to a dead stop. This effectively pinned me in gridlock because
I was in the inner lane. No one was moving and everyone was leaving their cars.
So I got out and ask a truck driver if he knew what was ahead because I was on
one side of a hill and the accident was on the other. He told me there were two
18-wheelers turned over across the interstate. And this is where the nightmare
began.
I got back in my car and tried to call Uncle Randy but got no
answer. The first call I didn't panic, even though it was strange for him not
to warn me of the accident. I thought maybe he got past it, so I tried calling
the house although I knew he'd not had time to reach it. As I redialed and
prayed, redialed and prayed I kept trying to come up with reasons for him not
to answer. I made a desperate attempt not to panic. This is called denial. In
the mean time I was trapped with a car in front of me and one in back. I knew I
couldn't leave my car and cause another accident, but I knew something was
seriously wrong even though I kept making excuses. I finally left my car again
and asked the same truck driver if there were any passenger cars involved. He informed
me he thought there was a pickup truck involved. I knew then! I returned to my
car as others were shifting their cars behind me. I was finally free of the
gridlock, so I pulled into the inside ditch and drove over the hill and this is
close to what I saw.
I am not entirely sure how I got from the inside ditch to the
access road beside the interstate, but I did. I caught the first uniform I saw
and ask them the make and model of the pickup. I wanted someone.... anyone....
to tell me I was wrong about what I was seeing. Once the Officer informed me my
uncle was dead. I called in the family. We spent several hours standing beside
the interstate with my uncle lying dead in the seat of his truck. They could
not remove his body because of all of the caustic soda. It was up to the wheels
on his truck. In fact he was still in the truck when the above photo was taken
because it was breaking daylight before he was removed. That night was a horror
that I hope no one else EVER has to endure. My cousin only lives a mile or two
from this site. On property that originally belonged to my grandparents. She
must pass by this and be reminded of that night on a daily basis.
Now that you understand how we came to be at this spot in time
that night, I will tell you about the accident itself. Two 18-wheelers were
traveling in the eastbound lane of I-20. One was transporting cars. The second
was hauling six 500 or 1000 gallon plastic vats of liquid Sodium Hydroxide. Or
in laymen terms LYE, caustic soda. At the very least; he was exposed to 3000
gallons of lye. The transport driver hit the chemical truck in the rear end and
by the skid marks they started to go towards the right ditch until they swerved
sharply left indicating that the chemical truck driver jerked his steering
wheel hard left. This caused both trucks to break though the cable barrier in
the median that the State of Texas claims will hold an 18-wheeler. It will NOT,
they took out two sections of it. Both trucks came to rest across both lanes of
westbound I-20 at the bottom of a hill, The chemical truck was on its side
spilling capricious amounts of lye on to the highway toward oncoming traffic.
My uncle had the misfortune to be traveling westbound down that hill. According
to his skid marks he tried to stop but there was not enough dry pavement before
he was hydroplaning on sodium hydroxide, yards from the chemical truck itself.
My uncle's truck slammed into the chemical truck on the driver's side causing
him to be literally drowned in lye.
We realize that the transport truck initially started the tragic
chain of events that night. And they have owned their responsibility. It is our
belief; the chemical truck perpetuated it with blind panic. If he had
maintained control, both 18-wheelers would have most likely remained on the
eastbound side of I-20. Saving the life of someone many people held dear.
As I stated earlier, that night was the beginning of the
nightmare. Little did we know it would continue in the months to come. It began
it at the funeral home; the judge had ordered an autopsy to determine cause of
death. Nowhere could they perform an autopsy. My uncle was too toxic. No one
had the ventilation system to handle it. All they could do was a visual exam
and blood toxicology. His report states "indications of head and chest
trauma" and "excessive exposure to Sodium hydroxide", "alcohol and drugs negative"
We will never know what really killed him or how long and to what extent he
suffered. Research shows sodium hydroxide in the amount he was exposed to; has
the potential to explode the heart.
The next thing we had to endure was his cremation. No one in my
family has ever been cremated. But we were not given much choice; again he was
just too toxic. We were not allow a viewing or even to be near him to say
goodbye.
Then comes the lawyers, unfortunately it is the only way to make
someone accountable for their actions. We agreed to a pre-suit mediation in an
attempt to have some closure. The transport company quickly owned up to their
responsibility and we hammered out an agreement. I know they think they paid
too much and we will always think they paid too little. We would return every
dime and more if they could bring my uncle back. Through the whole mediation
process we had to work around the fact that the chemical company wanted
$300,000 for the loss of their truck. But we worked around it and got it
settled. Then it was time to mediate with the chemical company. Initially, for
whatever the reason, they felt compelled to offer our family $5000. We
respectfully declined their pathetic offering. Later, they increased this
"offering" to $10,000. Nowhere in my world is a truck worth $300,000
and a life $10,000.
Would you like to know the name of the company that values life
at $10,000. It is Cudd Pressure Control. A company rumored to travel mostly at
night. I wonder if it has anything to do with weight scales being closed late
at night?
Open reprint permission: Please feel free to share this where ever you think it will serve the public as a caution to avoid these trucks. Especially where people like or are required to travel at night.
