The Accident: A True Story

In 1967, my Late husband, Romeo Doyle Muhammad and I were in a horrific accident on the QEW – the Queens Highway in Canada on our way to a family funeral in Detroit, Michigan. My daughter was just a baby in the fall of this year. She was with my mother at the time. In those days the Doyle family would often travel to Detroit for family funerals and weddings. My husband had just left work that day. So, we packed our bags and took to the highway. He did not have much rest after a long day at work.

As we drove down the highway, our car began to swerve. I could tell that my husband was sleepy. As we drove further, a state trooper put on his lights and pulled our car over to the side of the road. He asked where we were going and then he said, “I notice that your car was swerving from lane to lane and that’s why I pulled you over.” Sitting on the passenger side I was not really concentrating on what was said. After a few minutes the trooper drove away and we continued down the highway. What happened next was one of the most horrible accidents that I have been in my entire life. It is one that I will never forget.

In approximately ten minutes, our car was hit by a tracker trailer. I felt a hard jolt on my side of the car. Our car was hit so hard from the back until it rolled over into a ditch on the side of the road. The car rolled over and over. The entire time that it rolled over my husband never let go of my hand. After it stopped, we managed to crawl out and ran to the highway. We looked back and the tractor trailer burst into huge flames!!

The driver jumped straight up almost as if he was in the air. He jumped to the ground just in time. The tractor trailer burst into flames. The state trooper who had only minutes pulled us over came to the accident. Fire trucks and ambulances also arrived. Despite this terrible accident my husband and I survived. We were interviewed by the officer. We did not go to the hospital and, looking back on this accident, we should have went to get examined. But we later took a bus to Detroit. We did not miss the funeral.

At the time of this accident, I had only one child who was just a few months old. I often think about this accident, and I can close my eyes and see the flames of the tracker trailer and see the images of our car rolling over into the ditch. This happened when cell phone