"Life Flash Before My Eyes"... Almost

A memorable thing happened on the way to work this morning. When I stopped at the intersection of Sandy Blvd and Blue Lake Rd there were a couple cars in front of me. I had the radio on but could hear a rushing sound. I turned off the radio. It sounded like soneone was venting an air compressor tank. A really big one! On one corner of the intersection there is a gravel lot. There were a couple semi trucks parked there which isn't unusual. I started looking at them to see if an air line had broke. As I turned right onto Blue Lake Rd, I remembered that there is a natural gas pipeline valve in the gravel lot with a little chain link fence around it. One of the trucks had hit that thing! I could see that his trailer had swung around at just the right height to knock the valve off. I started sniffing. Sure enough that whooshing sound was high pressure gas venting.