Breaking 911: Bridgewater Township, N.J. – Two New Jersey State Troopers pulled a man out of a burning tractor-trailer on Interstate 287 in Bridgewater Township, Somerset County just seconds before it exploded.
On Monday, March 2, at approximately 3:35 p.m., Trooper Robert Tarleton was speaking with a driver on a motor vehicle stop northbound on I-287 at milepost 20 when a nearby tractor trailer ran off the right side of the road in the express lanes, striking the guardrail and bridge abutment before becoming engulfed in flames. WATCH
Nice.
Wow, that truck drivers guardian angels were sure watching over him. A few seconds later and they could’ve all been blown to smithereens. I hope the person the cop stopped initially also considers themselves to be lucky as well.
Beyond the call…lucky people or someone is watching over them.
That belief that ‘timing is everything’ comes to mind. God Bless all of them.
geoff the aardvark MARCH 7, 2020 AT 8:14 AM
“Wow, that truck drivers guardian angels were sure watching over him. A few seconds later and they could’ve all been blown to smithereens. I hope the person the cop stopped initially also considers themselves to be lucky as well.”
…I wouldn’t consider that lucky, I’d consider that blessed.
The Lord was watching over all of them that day, for His good purposes.
You don’t have to be in the Lord for the Lord to protect you, if it serves His purposes. He plays a long game, and He knows what He has in store for you later.
He held His hand over me and my patients many times, even though I was “too smart” for Him then, maybe for another’s benefit, perhaps because He knew I would come to Him in time, i’m not sure, but when I came to Him, I realized that His hand had been on me all that time, even when I was not walking towards Him.
All I know is that I had situations I can not explain my survival but for Him, and I thank Him and praise Him for it.
And these people now have the same.
May they realize they were spared by the Lord and not by luck, to His glory, and that they seek His face to discover the purpose He has for them.
God bless them all,
SNS
Amen, SNS I too have had many, many blessings and unexpected and lavish grace bestowed upon me that I can’t explain any other way except for God’s blessing on my life. I just turned 67 on Wed. and I consider myself to be a blessed man despite all the circumstances and having lost my wife of 35.5 years to leukemia 7 years ago. And I marvel a lot at times wondering how I made it so far without cracking up or going over the deep end and not knowing where I would’ve been without God.
And one other thing in going thru all these things I’ve found that I have become a giver of grace to others who have had similar life circumstances. It is very humbling and something I could not have attained on my own. And my trust and faith and belief in God have increased as well because I know now that I can get thru all things both good and bad that life throws at me.
…I would expect a man of your military service would have many occasions to have seen His hand, @geoff, and I suspect He has held His hand over you many more times besides that you well recognize now in your faith. It is right to praise Him.
And I’m sure you have that Blessed Assurance that your wife awaits you by His side, until He calls you to lay your trophies down and join her. I will tell you that I have seen in my time, with long-term marrieds that suddenly lose a spouse, that the woman goes on, puts her life back together, and carries on for the family as best she can through her grief and pain, and have come to believe that the Lord has women more attuned to life, the ebb and flow of it, and frequently is the more spiritual side of the marriage union; and in many ways women are stronger than men when it comes to the very human issues of birth, life and death.
This is because I have seen the other side, when a man loses a woman.
When a man is married to a good lady for a long time, such as yourself, it seems that he dies by half, that he simply can’t pull his own life together again with such a hole in it and soon follows her to the grave. I’ve actually been on scenes where I’ve seen men grieve so hard that I would look at my partner and he’d say, “We’ll be back” after his wife passes, the coroner leaves, the family if any has not arrived, and he is left alone with his grief; and sure enough, sometimes deep in that very same night, we have another call for him…
A man has to be strong as steel to even survive the shock of losing someone he’s so closely bonded to, but as with all things in life, and as I’m sure you discovered, our own strength isn’t enough.
I can’t pretend to know where you were in your walk with the Lord at that point in your life, and it’s none of my business besides; but in any man it would be completely understandable if it caused him to want to walk away from the Lord for a time, but I’m sure that He lent you His strength in that difficult time because you ARE still here, and still praise His name, when many others is your situation can no longer do either. This is proof that you have been blessed, and you will continue to be blessed as you continue to lift up His name, and you will discover what good things He has in store for you even before the end, I am sure.
He’s not done with you yet…
Thank you for your service to God and Country, @geoff the aardvark.
Thank you for your testimony.
And thank you for your praise of Him, in pain and in peace.
I will pray for you, and I will ask you pray for me. None of our own strength is sufficient, so ALL of us need prayer, and any person who says they do NOT, needs it even MORE.
God bless,
SNS
@ SNS
I’ve noticed that people that have close calls with death multiple times usually end up with a final blow after not seeing what is being said.
I think it is a possible wake up call that the Lord allows. I’ve seen it a number of times and told them so. Also,
I used to not like the word lucky but it also can mean blessed from what I have heard. It’s important to remember that death, sickness and destruction on earth come from the devil not from God.
Many years ago I drove a big truck for a company called Red Star Express before retiring. I ran the Interstate 78/287 corridor frequently.
Late one night (or early one morning) not long after the 9/11 tragedy… we are talking years ago here… I was stopped by a New Jersey State Police patrol car occupied by two gentlemen that looked like twins and were built like bowling balls.
They stopped me because I was carrying flammable materials and my unit was placarded as such. We stood behind their Patrol Car and my truck’s front bumper and there under the headlights discussed the absurdity of stopping placarded vehicles heading towards the City hoping to stop a bombing.
We talked for a few minutes and I came away with a newfound respect for the N.J. State Police that morning. As I drove away I remember thinking that if I’m ever involved in an incident in this part of the state I pray that those two gentlemen were among the first on the scene. After thirty years and three million accident free miles I thank the Lord I never needed their services.
Scary stuff,diesel burns very very HOT!