[Steve]

One night I was patrolling Northbound on Interstate 5, in the middle of nowhere. I5 in this area is a four-lane concrete freeway, two lanes in each direction, with a wide (about 40') dirt center divider and paved shoulders. At night during the week there isn't much traffic, mostly trucks, and so speeds tend to be high. In this area the road is almost flat and straight for about 10 miles in either direction. It was a clear night so I should have been able to see tail lights and truck running lights for miles ahead, framed by the bright starry night. But something was very wrong; dead ahead there was a black void. I could see the lights of approaching cars on the left, twinkling lights from the valley on the right, and the star canopy above. But immediately in front, at ground level, where the taillights of trucks should be seen, there was absolutely nothing. Just a void, an emptiness, as though someone had cut a rectangular piece out of a photo. This was beyond odd. What was happening on my beat? Was this a portal to another dimension? A wormhole in space? Was the next stop the "Twilight Zone"? I don't listen much to late-night talk radio and I'm not into UFO stories, but this was seriously weird.
As I continued, the void loomed slightly larger. Then it appeared I was getting close to something I could actually see. I turned on the high-beam headlights. The color of the void began to change from black to dark gray. Then I began to see shapes, lines...this thing wasn't a space portal, it was an object! But what? As I closed on it the answer was apparent: I was looking at the undercarriage of a 40' semitrailer, which had flipped onto its left side and was at rest completely covering both lanes at an almost perfect perpendicular angle. The trailer extended from the center divider all the way across both lanes and onto the shoulder, totally blocking the northbound lanes. The underside was dark and covered with road dirt, and with no lights on it was not readily visible to approaching traffic at a distance. The accident had apparently occurred within minutes because steam and smoke was still rising and I was the only one at the scene. I quickly activated every source of emergency light available plus the emergency flasher lights, and the red spotlight facing backward to give as much warning as possible to approaching traffic. I then located the tractor and verified that the driver was okay. I reported it to dispatch and called for a big rig tow asap then laid out a long flare pattern that merged traffic into the number one lane, then into the center divider and around the wreck. By the time the flare pattern was complete there was so much light there it could be seen for miles. Approaching trucks were coming in slow and careful; I'm certain the CB channel was busy.
I again contacted the driver who exited the cab by breaking out what was left of the windshield. He was shaken but unhurt. He had fallen asleep and the rig jacknifed, coming to rest on its side. It took both the medium and big rig tow trucks available in Los Banos to get the rig back onto its wheels and off the highway. Fortunately no one was injured and no other vehicles became involved. I felt very fortunate to have been first on the scene, in a position to immediately stabilize the situation and reduce the danger. I could just imagine a car with some family coming back from a long day at Disneyland, driving fast to get home, perhaps sleepy, rolling up on that hazard and seeing it much too late. It still gives me chills to think of what tragedy easily could have happened that night.