pen. Freed from her safety restraints,
Kelly jumped for the rear entrance of the dispensary and cleared the
racking clamps from the six autolitters. That done, she opened another
locker and reached for the mobile first-aid kit. She slid it to the
door entrance on its retractable casters. She slipped on her work
helmet with the built-in transmitter and then sat down on the seat by
the rear door to wait until the car stopped.

Car 56 was now less than two miles from the scene of the crash and
traffic in the green lane to the left was at a standstill. A half mile
farther westward, lights were still moving slowly along the white
lane. Ahead, the troopers could see a faint wisp of smoke rising from
the heaviest congregation of headlights. Both officers had their work
helmets on and Clay had left his seat and descended to the side door,
ready to jump out the minute the car stopped.

Martin saw a clear area in the green lane and swung the car over the
dividing curbing. The big tracks floated the patrol car over the
two-foot high, rounded abutment that divided each speed lane. Snow was
falling faster as the headlight picked out a tangled mass of wreckage
smoldering a hundred feet inside the median separating the green and
white lanes. A crumpled body lay on the pavement twenty feet from the
biggest clump of smashed metal, and other fragments of vehicles were
strung out down the roadway for fifty feet. There was no movement.

NorCon thruway laws were strict and none were more rigidly enforced
than the regulation that no one other than a member of the patrol set
foot outside of their vehicle while on any thruway traffic lane. This
meant not giving any assistance whatsoever to accident victims. The
ruling had been called inhuman, monstrous, unthinkable, and lawmakers
in the three nations of the compact had forced NorCon to revoke the
rule in the early days of the thruways. After speeding cars and cargo
carriers had cut down twice as many do-gooders on foot at accident
scenes than the accidents themselves caused, the law was reinstated.
The lives of the many were more vital than the lives of a few.

Martin halted the patrol vehicle a few feet from the wreckage and
Beulah was still rocking gently on her tracks by the time both Patrol
Trooper Clay Ferguson and MSO Kelly Lightfoot hit the pavement on the
run.

In the cab, Martin called in on the radio. "Car 56 is on scene.
Release blue at Marker 95 and resume speeds all lanes at