Horrific. Mind-Numbing. Bloody. With Halloween right around the corner, you might think I am describing the latest scary costumes or those over-sized, life-like monsters gracing the front yards of homes near and wide.

How I wish that were the case.

But it’s not. Last Saturday morning, as we were driving north toward Cranberry, Pa., we had the most awful misfortune of seeing the results of a devastating, tragic vehicle crash.

We were traveling in the lane parallel to the parkway where the road splits toward Pittsburgh or Erie, when we noticed traffic had slammed to a halt on that road headed toward Pittsburgh.

Our lane of traffic slowed but kept on moving north.

However, the parkway traffic was stopped after what appeared to be a most violent traffic accident.

In the brief time it took us to pass the area, we saw that vehicle parts were scattered everywhere.

People were running and screaming as a lifeless body could be seen sprawled on the road. And there was blood staining the pavement. There were no first responders or police at the scene yet as it was obvious it just happened a minute or two before we passed the area.

It is a scene I cannot get out of my mind. All I could do was whisper a prayer for those involved in that crash as we continued on our way.

There was nothing we could do to help without getting into an accident, too.

I imagine plenty of other drivers witnessed the same scene as they drove by.

I’d like to think that it caused most drivers to ease up on the gas pedal and actually obey what has always seemed to me to be arbitrary Pennsylvania speed limits. Yet it was business as usual with cars, trucks and motorcycles zipping on down the road at speeds well beyond the posted signs.

Honestly, I was grateful that up the road, construction work slowed traffic.

Despite the size of the crash and the obvious tragedy, I never saw any news about it on TV or online. I’d really like to know what caused such a horrible crash. Perhaps we will never know.

So much attention is given to gun violence in this country, yet we overlook the carnage that can happen when 2,000-pound vehicles collide at high speeds. I hope my readers never have to witness what we did on that otherwise beautiful Saturday morning.

There really are some things scarier than Halloween.

Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.