Credit: Chris English/LevittownNow.com
So much of life is about timing, and Wednesday night the timing of Jim Boice’s life brought him practically face to face with a tornado and fearing for his life.
Boice was driving across the Burlington-Bristol Bridge about 7 p.m. on his way back to his home in the Pinewood section of Levittown in Falls Township when he encountered the twister. He was able to outrun it and escape to safety on the Pennsylvania side of the bridge, but not before the most harrowing few seconds of his life.
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“I was having a business dinner at a restaurant in Haddonfield, New Jersey with two teachers,” said Boice, a field representative for the New Jersey Education Association, the public union that represents teachers and other school employees in that state.
“It was around 6:15 and raining hard, and I asked if we wanted coffee and dessert,” he continued. “They said no, let’s just get home. If we’d had coffee and dessert, none of what happened just a little later would have happened.”
Approaching the bridge, Boice noticed employees standing near the toll booths and wondered if the span was open. It was, and just a few seconds later he met the tornado.
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“I was talking on speaker phone to one of my friends at work when I look around and it’s right there, like a scene from a movie,” he said. “I did a double take and said ‘Oh my God, there’s a tornado coming right at me.’ I hit the brakes and put the car in reverse but then realized there was no way I could back up, because it was coming right at me.”
Providing a play-by-play over the phone to his friend the entire time, Boice decided his only chance was to outrun the twister and get across to Pennsylvania as fast as possible.
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Surreal and terrifying, he said of the experience.
“I looked and saw the white crests of the waves whipping around the base, with the white spray and choppy water,” Boice recalled. “It didn’t come straight across the bridge but kind of switched course, and it was like it was following me.
“At one point, I think it got as close as 40 yards away and I remember thinking I’m not going to make it. When it’s that close to you, it looks like a living thing, like it’s breathing. My only instinct was to go faster and faster. About halfway across the bridge, I started to get ahead of it. Until then, it was keeping up with me.”
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The same tornado reportedly later ripped off a roof of a condominium in Bristol Borough, authorities said. According to a Bucks County news release, the National Weather Service confirmed that two EF-1 tornadoes touched down in Bucks County Wednesday night, one in Bristol Borough and the other in Buckingham Township.
“When I got home, I hugged by wife (Rachael) and son (two-year-old Silas) and started to cry,” Boice continued. “The funny thing is, my wife is from the Midwest and has experience with tornadoes. I grew up in Penndel, and whenever the subject of tornadoes came up, I would always say ‘Ah, those tornado warnings, they’re a joke. We don’t get tornadoes here.’ And then, one almost sucks me up.”
Credit: Chris English/LevittownNow.com
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He has watched the video of the tornado that went viral on social media.
“I read the comments with people speculating about what they would have done if they were on the bridge at that time,” Boice said. “Well, I was that guy.”
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Boice, whose work takes him to school districts across Camden County in New Jersey, said he was nervous about returning to the Burlington-Bristol Bridge on Thursday and said he was thinking about finding another route to work.
“If I go across that same bridge, I think I’ll get my wife on the phone as I’m crossing and talk to her the whole time,” said Boice, who is grateful for the 2016 Lexus IS 350 all-wheel drive in which he escaped the tornado.
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“I now consider it my lucky car,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it.”
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