I am intentionally obfuscating it. Why? Because its not a pleasant story. Its not a story you will want to read. Trust me. In fact, I think I will warn you -- If you read this story, it may make you sick, horrified, or upset, it will definitely make you sad and will make you go hug your kids and you'll think twice before not wearing a seatbelt. You've been warned.

A friend was riding back with me from Colorado Springs to visit family in Missouri and due to the hot weather in Kansas, we decided that we would drive from Colorado to Missouri at night. After a few hours on the road, we were nearing Colby KS, where we were planning on stopping to refuel. Suddenly we saw a whirling object with red and white lights on the westbound side of the road. My friend witnessed something thrown high into the air from the spinning lights. I slowed my car and parked on the shoulder with my hazards on as we saw that the object that had been flipping end over end, at least 7 times, was a car, a tracker-type sport untility vehicle from Oklahoma.

Luckily my friend had a cell phone and called 911 as we got out of the car. A quick survey noted that there were no other vehicles on either side. We immediately heard a baby crying and we both assumed that there were people trapped in the car. As we approached the median from our side, I noticed that a car was approaching us in the left lane of our side. That's when I saw the body. There was a twisted body in the middle of the left lane, maybe 20 yards from us. I noted the car coming and realized there was nothing I could do but protect us, so I grabbed my friend and pulled us over to my car and spun us away just at the moment of impact.

I didnt have to look. The pop of the explosion told me what had happened, as did the rain of pieces that landed in the grass and road way around us. Thankfully we were not hit by debris, but I knew that the car had run over the head of the person.

As we turned around, my friend went to the median and I looked back to see that the car that had struck the body slowed to a stop far up the road, and was just sitting there. I moved closer to look at the struck body and indeed verified that it was now headless and was mangled beyond recognition. As I walked back to the overturned SUV, I walked past a chunk of brain the size of a football. It was all I could do to keep calm. What helped was knowing that there was a baby, still alive, crying.

We stepped onto the median to see a mangled body lying face down in the middle of the median but it did not move and did not respond. As we approached the car, a trucker who had stopped on the westbound side approached with a flashlight. The trucker took his flashlight and got another person to stop and backup and block the body in the road so that no other car would strike it. We bent down and looked inside and saw that the baby was fully mobile (head, arms, and legs) and was upside down, held by its car seat. The windows were smashed out and the side caved in, and I couldnt crawl inside, so my friend took the initiative and pulled out the crying baby while on the phone with 911. My friend also noticed that the seatbelts in the front were in their non-use positions.

My friend then proceeded to hand me the child, and I took it into my arms and started speaking comforting words to it as I moved it away from sight of the bodies. At that point, I mostly focused on trying to comfort the baby, she was probably 18 months to two years old, a beautiful child. She clung to me very closely and laid her head on my shoulders. All I could do was hold her tight and try to keep her warm and whisper in her ear that everything would be alright and that she was safe.

Finally, the police and ambulance arrived and immediately started work on the mother, but my friend came over to tell me that it didnt look good -- the side of her head was smashed in and she had many, many broken bones. That just made me comfort the baby even more.

A paramedic finally ran over and put a blanket over the baby and checked her vitals while I held her. She didnt have a concussion and she was fully responsive. Then they tried to take her from me, but she held on very tightly. So I suggested we go to the back of the ambulance where I could lay her down onto a surface that wasnt so far down. But as I tried to lay her down, she started crying and she held my shirt so tight in her hands. I had to try three times before I could lay her down without her getting really super upset and my holding her hand seemed to help, but then more paramedics moved in and I had to back away, which caused her to cry again. I was heartbroken.

I stayed to make a witness statement and then we got in my car and continued on our trip, which was a very long and difficult drive. My nerves were a mess and I was all shaken and upset. But we made it to Missouri with no problems.

The next day, we called the Kansas Highway Patrol. We discovered that the body that had been struck was the grandma. We also discovered that the mother indeed had died. But thankfully the little girl was just fine. No injuries at all. Her name is Alexandria Ingram. I can still feel her holding on to me as I type this.

And to this day, I cant get rid of the images, the sounds, the feelings, and the questions. Could I have pulled that body out of the road in time? Could I have somehow signalled that car? Could we have done anything to save the mother? What else could I have done? I dont know.

Out of all this, tho, I know that Alexandria Ingram is safe and that for a little while, she was comforted during what had to be, for her, an unimaginatively horrific experience.

--Grue