1700 hours
Car 56 had been at MM 23 when the call came . Now , at better than four miles a minute , Beulah whipped past MM 45 with ten minutes yet to go to reach the scene of the accident . Light flurries of wet snow bounced off the canopy , leaving thin , fast-drying trails of moisture . Although it was still a few minutes short of 1700 hours , the last of the winter afternoon light was being lost behind the heavy snow clouds overhead . Ben turned on the patrol car 's dazzling headlight and to the left and right , Clay could see streaks of white lights from the traffic on the green and blue lanes on either side of the quarter-mile wide emergency lane . The radio filled them in on the movement of other patrol emergency vehicles being routed to the accident site . Car 82 , also assigned to NAT 26-West , was more than one hundred fifty miles ahead of Beulah .