HEYBURN - It was a terrifying moment near Heyburn Monday morning as people witnessed a deadly crash.
A semi-truck traveling west on Interstate 84 flew off an overpass landing on the road below, Highway 24, as cars were traveling by.
“It was surreal,” said Brenda Tominaga, a stunned witness. “It was a moment. I almost think, ‘Did it really happen? Was I really there? Did I see that?’”
Brenda and her husband were headed to Burley driving down that road as the horrific scene unfolded.
“Debris and like sand and pebbles were falling on the roof of our car,” she said. “We thought that we had blown a tire. And [then we] heard another really loud crash, looked behind us and flames.”
That was the moment when the semi-truck veered through the guardrail and landed on the highway below hitting a pickup truck that was passing by.
“We didn't know what was going on and finally when we realized it I just felt hopeless,” she said. “I didn't know what to do to help somebody that was most likely still in that cab.”
It took a minute for them to process it. Once the Tominagas realized what had happened all they could do was call 911 and wait for help to arrive.
“[I] jumped out of the car and I was saying we got to help. Somebody’s in there. We've got to help. They can't get out,” Tominaga said. “The flames just kept getting bigger and there was several other explosions, and there was nothing we could really do.”
The accident killed the semi driver, while the driver of pickup was not seriously hurt.
For Brenda Tominaga, the whole thing took an emotional toll.
“Shaking for the rest of the day and felt numb,” she said. “Then finally the tears came.”
The Tominagas had driven under that overpass hundreds of times and this time they were just feet away from the wreck.
“There was oil all over the front [of the car] on the grill…license plate, grill, lights. It splattered about up to here and then all over the windshield,” she said. “We were very close. The front end of our car was getting the effects of the accident as it was going.”
The accident leaving her with all of the “what if's.”
“We could have been left the house a little bit earlier and driven a little bit faster and it would have been it would have been our life,” she said.
Now, they’re trying to move on. Brenda said she can't live in fear and is focusing on living in the present.
“You never know what's going to happen. Life can be over in a matter of seconds and there's no control,” she said. “Live each day the best we can, as each day is a gift.”