When you rent a U-Haul to move your belongings, you probably don’t envision running all over the road and acting like you have zero sense. Perhaps these individuals did. Police in Sturbridge, Massachusetts spent Monday morning searching for two people who abandoned a U-Haul truck and ran.
Authorities say the pair had been driving it dangerously enough to nearly cause several head-on crashes. The search drew several police, including K-9 units, to the Worcester County town. As of the department’s update, neither person had been found. Police said there was no sign of a threat to the public, however.
According to the Sturbridge Police Department, the case began with multiple calls about a U-Haul being driven, in the department’s words, in an “extremely reckless manner.” Witnesses described the truck passing other vehicles in no-passing zones and nearly hitting oncoming traffic head-on. By the time officers reached the scene, the truck had been left behind. The driver and a passenger had already run off on foot.
That left police looking for two people they could describe only by their clothing. Officers put out a description of a man in a white T-shirt and a woman in a white tank top with a tattoo on her left shoulder. K-9 teams joined the search. Residents were asked to stay clear of the area around New Boston Road and Walker Road while it went on. Police also urged anyone who spots the two not to approach them, and to call the department or 911.
What Makes a Head-On Pass So Deadly
As of now, plenty about the situation is still unknown, including why the two were driving that way and why they ran. Two parts of it are already clear, though: how dangerous the driving witnesses described can be, and why a scene like this brings out K-9s and road closures. For one, it’s extremely dangerous to operate larger trucks and vans in this manner. But you should already know that.
To be specific, the behavior witnesses reported, like passing in no-passing zones, is one of the riskiest moves you can make on a two-lane road. Those zones cover the curves and hills where a driver can’tsee far enough ahead to pass safely. Pulling into the oncoming lane there means committing without knowing what’s coming the other way. If a car appears, both drivers may have a second or two to react, if that. And you can probably assume what’s coming next after that.
This may be obvious, but we’ll say it anyway: a head-on crash is one of the deadliest kinds of collision, because the two cars’ speeds combine at the point of impact. Two vehicles approaching at 50 miles an hour each close on one another at 100, with almost no time to react. The truck here was a loaded moving van, which only adds mass and force to that. Police say no one was hit in this situation, but that could have been very, very different.