driving through the debris of someones life

On our way back from Long Island yesterday, everyone fell asleep in the car leaving me to drift off into my own thoughts for the last hour or so of the trip. Just as we were about to exit the mass pike, there was a traffic backup. I could see the blue lights reflecting off the semi in front of us, so I knew we weren't far from the accident. As we inched our way along, I imagined all the scenarios that could have caused the delay. It was exceedingly windy and there was more then one time when I tapered back on my own speed for fear of drifting all over the road. We rolled up to the scene and there it was, a mid-sized sedan, flipped over on the hood. A man stood next to the mangled vehicle with an industrial sized broom raking the glass out of our way. I can't imagine anyone walked away from that wreck uninjured. As we drove past the scene, the papers and books that were once packed in this persons life were now in a disorganized mess all over the highway. Loose papers were caught in the eddies of the fast moving cars, cars trying to make up in speed for the time they lost rubber necking someone elses disaster. There were text books ripped apart, all kinds of personal effects strewn about. We literally drove through the debris of their life. All I could think about was the phone call that had to be made to some poor family member. We just never know what lies ahead, what paths we'll cross, when we'll be lucky and when we'll be the subject of phone calls that rip people right out of time and stamp them forever in one startling unmovable frame.