OT: witnessed a fatal car crash

[LegendRider]

I met some cycling friends for pizza last night and on the way home I witnessed a fatal car crash. A car took a left at an intersection with a stoplight and was t-boned by an oncoming vehicle.

I saw it unfold and knew it was going to be bad but I cannot remember important details such as whether the light was green or the estimated speed of the oncoming car.

I stopped and immediately called 911 but there was no answer. I hung up, called again and it continued to ring when I got a call from a local number. It was the 911 service saying they got a "911 hang up" from my number. I told them about the accident and they said they were being flooded with calls about it.

I then went closer to the accident where a local resident pulled two guys from the the oncoming car before it was FULLY engulfed with flames. The driver of the t-boned car was ejected and was face down on the pavement in a pool of blood. He was dead. Probably the most awful thing I've ever seen.

There is a police and fire station nearby but it seemed to take forever for them to show up. It was probably a reasonable response time but it *seemed* like an eternity. The EMTs were the last to show up and I was surprised at their response. I expected them to scramble and attempt life-saving measures, but they must have realized he had passed. I don't know SOP but I wish they had covered his body out of respect.

Meanwhile I gave a statement to the police and was told a traffic investigator would likely call me.

I'm pretty shaken up. It was the first and only time I've witnessed a violent death. I think about a guy turning onto a residential road probably going home to his family and then 15 seconds later he's dead. I think about what it were me. I think about my high school kids driving and the dangers they face.

[8aaron8]

I'm sorry you had to witness such a terrible event. I hope you take comfort with loved ones and in time move past the imagery.

[robt57]

Shaken Up, I bet.

Unfortunately, I have been first on scene more times than I'd have preferred.

Once a car rolled and a fire took over somewhat quickly. The very excited driver that jumped out reverted to a language I do not have any comprehension of. In the 30 seconds I was trying to find out if anyone else was in the car, it became too late to do anything about it. Turns out there was not, huge relief at least at that.

Bad curve, and between that one and another with an ejection, same curve. I hated being around there...

Hope some time will calm the experience for you OP.

[Jcgill]

For the two fire/ems departments i work for it is SOP to cover a body to keep prying eyes from bystanders off.
It is also SOP most places that you do not attempt life saving measures if there are obvious signs of death present.
I have been in this field for 14 years and have seen a lot of unimaginable situations, and it is still numbing when it happens. However your training kicks in and you just go into autopilot to do as much as you can for any given situation.

[Matthew]

My wife and I witnessed one in So. Carolina on our honeymoon in 1993. We were on scene prior to the emergency crews. Very hard to witness. Another bystander literally passed out after seeing the deceased young lady still in her vehicle. I admit I got a bit queezy myself. Learned the next morning the victim was a young school teacher. Very, very sad. An image that has stayed with me over two decades now.

[Tickdoc]

That is terrible and sorry you had to witness that. Makes you want to hug the ones around you a little tighter and not take each day for granted.

[unterhausen]

I saw a t-bone accident, fortunately not fatal. Driver in front of us runs the light, realized her mistake, and stops in the middle of the road. The crossing car must have been going really fast, because the driver locked up the brakes a long time before we saw the car and it was still a pretty brutal collision.

I wish people would wear their seat belts. A majority of men and 40 percent of women don't. There was a fatal crash near here where two 20 y.o. died, not wearing seat belts. The car they were in was fairly new and relatively intact. Another driver involved was life-flighted from the scene, also not wearing seat belts.

[Mr. Pink]

I wish people would wear their seat belts. A majority of men and 40 percent of women don't. There was a fatal crash near here where two 20 y.o. died, not wearing seat belts. The car they were in was fairly new and relatively intact. Another driver involved was life-flighted from the scene, also not wearing seat belts.

How is this even possible these days? Can you disable the warning sound/voice? Do they drive around with it going off all the time?
I rented a Fiat in Italy that had the most obnoxious fasten you seat belt alarm. You couldn't stand it more than a few seconds. Maybe all cars should have that. My new Honda is way too polite.

It was the third or fourth question a doctor I really liked asked me at checkups. Do you wear a seatbelt? Then she asked me if I wore a helmet biking. I liked that doctor, sad to lose her.

[quickfeet]

I know how you feel OP, I saw a guy jump off a bridge into highway traffic. If any of the couple of small annoyances I had that morning didn’t happen I could easily have been the car that actually hit and killed him. Horrible scene that I doubt I’ll ever forget it.

Mainly I think of the lives affected around it. There are too many to count in any fatal incident. The man killed, the driver that hit him, all of us that witnessed it, the emts, and the list goes on and on.

I spent a fair amount of time evaluating life the next couple days and think of it a lot when I am feeling like life is beating me up. Essentially, my take is that in reality none of the little things that we think are important in life actually are. We can literally change our lives tomorrow if we just decide to.

[shinomaster]

That’s horrible I’m so sorry you had to witness that.

[yinzerniner]

How is this even possible these days? Can you disable the warning sound/voice? Do they drive around with it going off all the time?
I rented a Fiat in Italy that had the most obnoxious fasten you seat belt alarm. You couldn't stand it more than a few seconds. Maybe all cars should have that. My new Honda is way too polite.


For some vehicles disabling the seatbelt is as easy as slipping a piece of cardboard into the buckle, for others it would require removal and/or shorting of a fuse. But it's amazing what some do to get around an obvious life-saving measure. Thankfully that small percentage of drivers is getting smaller every day.

And safety systems are always tough to initially implement until they hit a critical mass. For more egregious examples look at goalie masks in hockey, or facemasks in football. More recently if anyone's been skiing for the first time in five years you'd notice that everyone wears a helmet.

But to the OP, so sorry you had to witness that awful crash, but if there's any solace to be gained it's that the other people on the scene were quick to try helping in any way they could. A couple years ago I witnessed the last moments of a fugitive's life, right before he got gunned down by the NYPD. I didn't see him shot but heard the gunfire. At one point I was about 20' away as he drove passed and looked him eye to eye. Still haunts.

[bigbill]

We came across one after descending near the Empire Grade close to Santa Cruz. A car had pulled out and a motorcycle had hit the car just forward of the driver's door. The motorcyclist was on the hood and his bike was in a berm about 50' away with motorcycle parts (plastic stuff) strewn down the road. EMS and police were there. We had to wait about 30 minutes before we were allowed to carry out bikes past the scene. No blood, just a motorcyclist on the hood with his head at an awkward angle. Later that evening we heard on the news that the motorcyclist was traveling approximately twice the speed limit around the blind corner. We all felt bad for the driver, the guy died on her hood.

[redir]

So far in my life I've seen 3 fatal car crashes as gruesome as the one you witnessed, a fatal helicopter crash and a fatal mountaineering accident on a glacier. about 6 months after the one on the glacier I started having panic attacks. I had no idea what was going on with me, felt like I was having a heart attack. I went to my doctor who sent me to a psychologist and I've been straight ever since. Moral of my story is sometimes it's hard to get that stuff out of your head and like in my case it just got buried and came out in secret. If you think you need help then get it.

[YesNdeed]

Yikes. That's a truly awful scene you have described.

Last night leaving work, I saw the result of a terrible crash that diverted my route home, and really got my attention. One vehicle was completely destroyed and overturned in the middle of the oncoming lanes, while the second vehicle was wrapped around a utility pole. I would be surprised if there weren't fatalities. A blown red light and high speeds were likely factors, but it's hard to know what actually happened.

Let's all take the best care, and drive and ride with a heightened sense of awareness. Not to point blame at any of the victims, but I rarely drive through an intersection without looking both ways. Never trust a green light. And I may damn well wear out my rearview mirrors from using them so much!

[buddybikes]

Haven't witnessed that bad of result but once I was driving under an overpass which was fairly new. A truck on the overpass took the turn too fast, and went off the guardrail. I witnessed the semi bounce off the pavement. If I was there 4 seconds earlier it would of bounced off my car. Another time riding on a twisty back road to my house, I hear a crash, a truck (I think due to overturning) t-boned a tree in back of me, he was ok however. Another, driving with my family, kayaks on roof for a day at the ocean, pickup in front of me was towing a small excavator, began fishtailing (no brakes on the trailer) then flipped. He survived too, just plain dumb!!

[tuxbailey]

OP, sorry you have to witness that. Hopefully you can put it behind you and not let PTSD happen.

I wonder if the deceased was not wearing a seatbelt?

[William]

Sorry you had to see that. It is always tough to see how fragile life actually is.

As a kid one neighborhood we lived in had a main road with a blind curve and a side street at the apex. Slight up hill in both directions. People generally drove too fast and quite a few incidents happened down there. Being kids on bikes we always gravitated down to see what was going on. The one that sticks with me was the motorcyclist who was going too fast and plowed into the back of a boat on a trailer being pulled by a truck waiting to turn off onto the side street. He was wearing a helmet, but it wasn't a full face helmet, not that that necessarily would have saved him. The blood and the teeth inbedded in the stern of the boat...I can still see that. I've seen others but that one sticks with me.








W.

[Skenry]

For the two fire/ems departments i work for it is SOP to cover a body to keep prying eyes from bystanders off.

That is interesting and different from any place I have ever worked, I'm 24 years in now. The sheet then becomes part of the crash scene and therefore part of the investigation. We might have a rookie hold a sheet up like a shower curtain if the media shows up, but we don't ever add it to the body.

For the OP, you have lived a safe life which is good, but you just get used to it.

[Seramount]

while in HS, was out in the front yard of my parent's house one evening and heard an incredibly loud noise and saw a brilliant light that looked very close.

a buddy and I got in my car and drove towards the area where these emanated from...we were some of the first people on the scene.

a gasoline tanker had overturned and was fully engulfed in flames. the driver had been ejected from the cab and was lying on the roadway, no one knew what to do...the fire was intense, there was no way to get anywhere near the man. but, it was almost a certainty he was dead, so any attempt to render aid would have probably been pointless.

the images are permanently etched in my memory.

[eippo1]

Yeah those things stay with you some. Couple weeks ago we were at a high school hockey game when one of the parents had an aneurysm. They called the game because all the kids were trying to see if it was their parent getting compressions. Heartbreaking. Also learned that he didn't make it.

Something I'll never forget was driving out of the old 93 Boston tunnel before the big dig when following a trailer. We went over a big bump and part of his axel coupling came off. It bounced and I realized I was screwed so slammed on the brakes and ducked below the dash. Luckily my windshield held but was completely bucked in. And then a cop rear ended me.

Sent from my SM-P580 using Tapatalk

[jimcav]

Your instinct to value living, and those you love, is heartening. As others have said, witnessing death is not easy, for me even "peaceful" is hard as I always think about those left behind without their loved one. If this has further negative impact on you, I would encourage you to talk to someone who can help you process and best heal from what you witnessed.

[Bruce K]

Many years ago, I witnessed a cyclist fail to stop at a red light at the bottom of a hill and t-bone a van. No idea if it was brake failure or brain “failure” but the result was the same - head first into the sliding door.

My girlfriend at the time was an EMT and I was teaching First Aid classes for the Red Cross. We both went to help, along with another witness who turned out to be an ER nurse at the hospital that was less than a mile away.

It was obvious this was going to be fatal (won’t go into detail) as we waited for police and rescue.

The police came a few days later to collect witness statements and confirm what we were pretty sure the outcome was.

It was an image that stayed in memories and dreams for quite a while. Eventually it faded.

Here’s hoping you get past it.

BK

[dddd]

To the OP, know that the memory and it's impact will fade over time, perhaps a week later this won't be much in your thoughts.

I guess it's because of how many years that we live moving through traffic, we are bound to witness fatalities and/or their immediate aftermath.

I've come across quite a few, the first one was the worst as we were one of the first cars on scene, with two of the group of very young adults dead already, late at night when/where it takes a long while for emergency response to show up. There was alcohol involved from what I witnessed, but it didn't even occur to me to note exactly who the driver was. I later saw the one more-ambulatory guy going to pieces over it so I assumed he had been driving when the car failed to make a turn and side-swiped a guardrail. It was really, really sad seeing his unfortunate reality sinking in right there, left it's mark on me for sure.

[gasman]

I'm sorry you had to witness this. I've taken care of a lot of patients that have been in horrific accidents and seen several suicide attempts and several grizzly suicides. Also seen several drunk driver accidents and deaths.

Everyone is different in how they deal with confronting these scenes. I often talked to my fellow docs afterwards. As I got further in my career these scenes bothered me less. Sometimes the images stick in your head for years but the emotional component lessens over time. I remember most of the people involved but usually didn't know their name which helps keep an emotional distance. Listen to what you need. Talk to close friends or other riders. Talk to your partner if you can, I never talked to my wife as she is too sensitive to hear about these tragedies . If you find the images still bother you talk to a counselor you trust.