It was summer and I was very young, probably about 7 or 8 years old. We were driving from San Diego to Fortuna, the Chief's home town in Northern California. I remember the Chief explaining the timberline to me and how I was facinated with the mountains and rivers and the huge redwood trees. We passed a logging camp where the whole camp had been built from the lumber from one tree. There was another where the cabins were hollowed redwood logs. And of course, there was the tree you could drive right through. My Mom, Betty Lou, was laughing at some of the traffic signs, especially the ones that said "Trucks Slow to 50" on the curves when we had to slow down to 35 to go around them.
Somewhere up there in the high country the Chief suddenly became very tense and started looking for a place to pull off the road. There weren't many places to do that in that area, steep hills to the right and deep drops to the left. But he became very agitated, a very strange thing...the only time in my memory when the Chief acted like he was afraid. When I started to ask what was up, I was told to sit back and be quiet. After a bit I started hearing an air horn. I was getting louder and the Chief was getting tenser when he spotted a turn out ahead and made a dash for it. Very shortly after we pulled off the road, a huge logging truck passed us going very fast. He was blowing his horn and grinding gears and the motor would roar. The Chief was sweating buckets. He explained to me that the truck was a "run away" and couldn't stop. He was revving his engine and trying to get back in gear.
We all colmed down some then got back on the road. A few miles down the road we came to a curve that the truck couldn't get around. The cab was off the truck, huge logs were all over the hillside, the dolly axles were separated and spread around. Several people were already stopped trying to help out but it didn't look good. We slowed as we went by and I could see the front wheels still spinning.
I went to the Army's truck driving school at Fort Ord in 1964. I have been a professional truck driver since, both military and civilian. Through all my career the thing that frightened me most about driving was the thought of being stuck in neutral (prophetically called "Angel Gear" by many pros) on a downgrade and unable to stop. I can still hear the driver revving the engine and grinding away, trying to get the truck into gear.