It’s a “B” movie at best. But I still searched and searched until l finally found a DVD copy of it. I did this because even though I first saw it as a teenager, it left such an impact on me that I have never forgotten it!
It is titled “Smash-Up on Interstate 5”; and it boasts a reasonable plot enacted by a fairly accomplished group of actors, including, among others, Robert Conrad, Buddy Ebsen, Vera Miles, Donna Mills, David Nelson, Harriet Nelson, and a young Tommy Lee Jones.
The 1976 made-for-television movie is loosely based on the novel, Expressway, written by Trevor Dudley-Smith. The story line chronicles the events leading up to, during, and in the aftermath of, a 39-car smash-up in California. As the film’s tagline puts it: “Day to day problems of living become insignificant in one fateful moment.”
Ominously, the film portends a real event that was to occur some 15 years later on this very California Expressway. According to an August 16, 1992 Today in the Word article, on November 30, 1991, fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to virtually zero.
The afternoon holocaust left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way in the darkness, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into danger, disaster, and in some cases, even death.
Darkness can be a terrible thing. If we advance carelessly into darkness, we can easily find ourselves in mortal danger. God’s Word speaks a lot about the dangers of dwelling in darkness – especially spiritual darkness. It does the same for spiritual blindness, for being unable to see the light, and being forced to dwell in darkness as a result.
As the Bible puts it (in the Old Testament book of Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 29): “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.”
But praise be to God, the same Bible also tells us (in the New Testament Letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, verse 13) that God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Are you stumbling about in darkness today? If so, I have good news for you. God can and will dispel your darkness. According to the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah (chapter 42, verse 16), God promises us this: “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”
I hope such a promise brightens your day. After all, life is far better lived in the light than in the darkness!
MOVIE SOURCE:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075236/.
ARTICLE SOURCE:
Available widely on the internet. See, for instance: https://www.family-times.net/illustration/Blindness/200059/.
SCRIPTURE SOURCES:
https://biblehub.com/bsb/colossians/1.htm;
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/4-19.htm;
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/42-16.htm.
It is titled “Smash-Up on Interstate 5”; and it boasts a reasonable plot enacted by a fairly accomplished group of actors, including, among others, Robert Conrad, Buddy Ebsen, Vera Miles, Donna Mills, David Nelson, Harriet Nelson, and a young Tommy Lee Jones.
The 1976 made-for-television movie is loosely based on the novel, Expressway, written by Trevor Dudley-Smith. The story line chronicles the events leading up to, during, and in the aftermath of, a 39-car smash-up in California. As the film’s tagline puts it: “Day to day problems of living become insignificant in one fateful moment.”
Ominously, the film portends a real event that was to occur some 15 years later on this very California Expressway. According to an August 16, 1992 Today in the Word article, on November 30, 1991, fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to virtually zero.
The afternoon holocaust left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way in the darkness, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into danger, disaster, and in some cases, even death.
Darkness can be a terrible thing. If we advance carelessly into darkness, we can easily find ourselves in mortal danger. God’s Word speaks a lot about the dangers of dwelling in darkness – especially spiritual darkness. It does the same for spiritual blindness, for being unable to see the light, and being forced to dwell in darkness as a result.
As the Bible puts it (in the Old Testament book of Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 29): “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.”
But praise be to God, the same Bible also tells us (in the New Testament Letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, verse 13) that God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Are you stumbling about in darkness today? If so, I have good news for you. God can and will dispel your darkness. According to the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah (chapter 42, verse 16), God promises us this: “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”
I hope such a promise brightens your day. After all, life is far better lived in the light than in the darkness!
MOVIE SOURCE:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075236/.
ARTICLE SOURCE:
Available widely on the internet. See, for instance: https://www.family-times.net/illustration/Blindness/200059/.
SCRIPTURE SOURCES:
https://biblehub.com/bsb/colossians/1.htm;
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/4-19.htm;
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/42-16.htm.