Tanker and Car Collide on I-24- Flint Adam

I-24 west is back open following an afternoon collision between a fuel-tanker and a small car.

As bad as it looked, emergency responders were relieved by an unexpected twist.

The tanker dragged the car roughly the length of a football field.

The scene looked bad, but looks can be deceiving.

There were skid marks hundreds of feet long, and a car pinned underneath an 8,000-gallon tanker.

Emergency responders were prepared to find death and were wary of an explosion.

Neither happened.

Siblings Randy and Jessica Perrigo were in the car, coming back from a hospital visit.

"He just came over on us and there was nothing I could do," said Randy.

The pair say they were driving alongside the tanker on I-24 west around 12:20PM.

"His tires catch the front of the car and he just drags us with him, and we're just pinned up under, and about 10 to 15 feet away from where we stopped it just sort of just cracked the windshield and me and my brother just looked at each other and were like, yeah, the tires are fixing to come over," said Jessica.

But the tires didn't roll over them, and the tanker didn't explode.

"First thing we did as soon as both cars stopped, we both just hopped out because we figured it was about to blow," said Jessica.

Nashville Fire Department Assistant Chief Steve Holt said, "This was very unusual - we were expecting the worst of the situation and thankfully it turned out okay."

The Perrigos escaped without a scratch, and the tanker almost did, too-- suffering only a dent.

The same can't be said for the Perrigo's car, though.

"It hurt the car worse than it did us," said Jessica.

Emergency responders had to lift the tanker off the car with airbags.

I-24 westbound was shut down for a few hours, but reopened by mid-afternoon.Tanker and Car Collide on I-24- Flint Adam

Posted: Tuesday, November 3 2009, 06:52 PM CST