When Two Big Trucks Collide

 On our way home from Tortuguero, as we were traversing Highway 32 through Braulio Carillo, we came onto this traffic jam. This wasn't the first collision we had come upon on this part of highway. We were aware of one on another trip but by the time we had arrived the police had already cleared the road. 

Up ahead, we saw these two rigs stopped without making progress. Next came a typically-Tican uncanny event. The rule here is this: if you can't drive in your own lane because it's not moving or blocked, make your way around. Clark chose to follow traffic and do the same, but it didn't go according to plan.

Clark "drove with the flow of traffic."

This depicts our car following other cars in the ONCOMING lane and motorcycles not having that, so they are passing between two head on lines of traffic. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, the traffic is piling up and at a dead lock.

At this point, the lady from the car in front of us and a guy from way up ahead had partnered up to take charge of the traffic jam. They went down the line of cars telling everyone to move to the right and left as much as possible without going in the steep water-trench ditch (the kind that if you catch your tire on, your car will end up sideways off the road...we had previously observed an F-150 in such a predicament). Everyone moving over allowed the oncoming traffic to follow the motorcycles right up the middle up the road. Could this really be the solution? Of course not! It's not sustainable to move everyone. So...

This is us getting back into the right lane. Why are the cars angled that way? There's the lady in the green telling everyone to move over by using the right lane to "park". All the cars blocking the left lane can fit into the right lane freeing the oncoming traffic to flow again in the left lane. The guy who took charge is up ahead directing the traffic, letting so many cars through and then letting the lanes take turns. Notice the rigs are still stuck there.

Once we got up to the rigs it was easy to see the problem. You might make sense of the picture or not. One had rear-ended the other. Here in Costa Rica, when you get in a wreck, you don't move your vehicle even if it still runs. It remains in the way until the police arrive, which takes a bit of time. 

Some police and the ambulance passed us very soon once we were on the other side. Of course, by then, at least 30 minutes had gone by. Regretfully, I didn't get a picture to document what we estimate to be 3 miles of traffic backed up in the oncoming lane and I'm sure the right lane behind us was at least as bad. Those people were going to be there a while. We were fortunate to arrive soon after the wreck, albeit avoiding being IN the wreck, so our half hour wait was significantly shorter than the cars coming after us.

A beautiful view on the other side!!