Quick thinking and providence kept a five vehicle wreck from becoming a fatal tragedy in the early morning hours Saturday on Interstate-20.

Around 4 a.m., driver Michael Kinder was approaching the Sigman Road exit westbound in an 18-wheeler filled with goods for Wal-Mart, when he suddenly saw two cars stopped in the middle lane on I-20, reportedly without their blinkers on.

“I saw that car – I had a choice to run over and kill them or move. I moved over,” said the 48-year-old driver from Americus. But as he changed lanes, he saw another two cars stopped in that lane. 

“That made me have to move again,” he said. “When I throwed it back over there to miss this car, it threw me over.”

The tractor trailer began to fishtail and flipped on its right side, crashing into the right guard rail and shoulder of the highway.

About five or six people were reportedly transported for medical attention, but none were fatalities, according to Kinder, who had been checked and released, and workers cleaning up the site as of 4 p.m.

Kinder said, “The state patrol and sheriffs were shaking my hand. They said, ‘Man, you a hell of a driver. There could have been a lot of dead people out here if it weren’t for you.’”

“I risked my life to let them people live. I didn’t know whether there were any kids in the van. I work for a good company and they would have wanted me to do that.”