Beware the falling branch
After a brush with danger on a Pike County Road, Pocono Record Executive Editor Chris Mele made it to the office safely today. Here, in
his words, is what happened:
My commute along Route 402 to Stroudsburg took an unexpected, frightening-for-a-moment turn Friday morning.
I almost never drive with the window open, but because of the condensation on the windshield this morning and the heavy fog, I lowered the driver’s side window by
about two inches to get some fresh air circulating.
Listening to the radio, I was lost in my pre-work thoughts when in a micro-second from the corner of my eye I saw a tree branch making a beeline for the window.
Too late.
Loud thud on the window. Brief pain high on my cheekbone just below my eye. Shards of the branch – maybe half an inch thick — littered my dashboard and wood dust
covered my lap and tie following the explosive impact.
I had one of those what-just-happened moments.
I’m still not sure exactly how it reached me with such velocity. I mean the thing was a flying projectile but I don’t know if I kicked it up from the road or
whether it fell from a tree or what.
Maybe this branch was Mother Nature raising her middle finger at all the motorists zipping by her treasured woodlands? – Chris Mele
