You know I’ve had so many close calls in my life, I really don’t even have time to explain them all. They come in different times of your life, different areas of your life. I know as a play by play man, I can’t even begin to imagine how many miles I’ve traveled to football, baseball, and basketball games. The close calls I’ve had in traveling, I don’t even want to think about them, but I do know that the good Lord has taken care of me.

He’s also taken care of me as we travel to church. For the past 15 plus years I’ve been pastor at Center City Baptist Church. I can’t tell you how many times I get scared, either going to or coming back from church because of the people driving the highways. I mean, there are – what’s a nice way to explain it – let me call them “maniacs.” There are literally maniacs driving on the highway and I’m talking about Sunday morning early and after church it’s even worse. We’re talking about two lane roads, double yellow stripe, going up hills, and people swinging out to pass going up those hills at an unbelievable rate of speed, sometimes passing two cars, and just barely missing someone coming over the top of the hill. We are going 75 and they scare me.

A few days ago, I get the story on my computer that says there has been a horrible accident three miles outside of Comanche. When I started getting the details and piecing things together, it’s just unbelievable. It involved three motorcycles and two vehicles and this was all thrown into action by the driver of a white Ford pickup who decided that apparently they needed to get somewhere faster than everybody else. He or she swings out and takes off around a vehicle, not able to see what’s coming the other way, and collides with a vehicle knocking it off the road and then the three motorcycles become involved trying to avoid the crash. This created a head on collision and two people are killed, one the driver of a vehicle, and the other the driver of a motorcycle. Others suffered significant injuries. The only one who doesn’t appear to pay a price – the driver of the Ford pickup. It has damage to it but it takes off. Two people are dead, others injured.

I really haven’t talked to anybody who has been on that scene, but I would imagine, knowing the good nature of most people, that a bunch of vehicles pulled over on both sides of the road to help. It’s what most people would do, unless they’re drinking or whatever.

That person who at one time was in Comanche County, as far as I know, has not been found. If not, I hope that person is totally miserable. I wish I could just say something and make it right, but I can’t. I’m a pastor and I pray for the people. I can try to encourage the people, but I’ll tell you what hurts them as much as anything right now, the one who caused the accident is still walking around and apparently thinking they got away with something. The families need some small amount of closure.

Let me just say something to whoever was driving that pickup: You shouldn’t feel good about it right now and I don’t think you are going to feel good about it in five years. Two people are dead and others are significantly injured. The least thing you should do as a human being is to be a real man or a real woman and step forward and say to the police, the highway patrol, a minster or whomever and say, ‘I did it.’ I pray, if you are the reason that this happened, the Lord will lay it on your heart to the point where you can’t go on like this.

Until next time, so long everybody.

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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].