The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time
The following recount has content that some readers may find disturbing and upsetting.
Three years ago, my eldest daughter was still doing rhythmic gymnastics. Training finished at 8pm and we would have a 45 minute drive to fetch my other daughter from her artistic gymnastics training. On this particular day it was summer, so it was still full daylight as we left. There is one main, two lane road which leads off the peninsula. It's not a high speed road, with a 60kph limit; approximately 40mph.
As we are traveling along this road, the traffic in front of me gets slower and slower. I check the right hand lane to move over and overtake, but the traffic there has slowed too. There's no obvious reason why. No road works, no breakdowns that I can see and no accident that's causing people to change lanes. Both lanes are just moving slowly.
Puzzled, I scan the road ahead to try and figure out what's happening. Finally I see shattered glass across the road. It spans the entire width of the road, both lanes. Yet still I see no sign of a car wreck. The traffic continues to crawl, then to my right I see a leg...
The top of the thigh is angled towards me, showing bone surrounded by flesh. While part of my mind is trying to convince myself it's a prop that's fallen from a trailer, my eyes are feeding back the information that the flesh is sagging and it's real, not rubber.
I realise that if it is real, then there is more somewhere. Reluctantly my eyes scan back across the road to my left and over what looks like a pile of rags in the gutter. They keep scanning to the left as my brain says “please don't let that be what I think it is.” When I reach the sight of a car on its roof, through a fence in a garden, almost through the window of the building, it sinks in that the heap in the gutter really is what I think it is.
To return to the road my eyes have to pass by the gutter again and I'm closer now. I can't help but notice that he looks like a pile of rags because his clothes have been mostly torn from his body and are cast haphazardly over his crumpled form which is half exposed, face down. Tears well in my eyes at the indignity of his last moments and I start to shake. My 14 year old is in the passenger seat next to me and I want to protect her from this, while realising the futility of it. She has the same view as I do. I say the only useless thing that comes into my head and it's, “don't look.” Amazingly she complies, but it can't be unseen.
My eyes are fixed on the road ahead as we pass what I can't bear to continue to look at. The first flashing blue and red lights approach from the opposite direction. I don't envy them one bit for what they're about to have to deal with.
As we pick up speed and continue our journey, my daughter asks me why all those people were standing around looking down at him.
Wow. It can be a crazy thing at times, to be on the road. It's my goal to get my driver's licence this year to improve my employment chances. I could never really afford to do it before. But it's essential to remain sober and awake and aware behind the wheel these days.
Seeing these things can be quite horrific and can be also quite the deterrent when it comes to wanting to learn to drive. Thankfully I have only seen the rare accident.
The driver who hit this man was going twice the limit and was drunk and on meth. He regrets it enormously and will have to live with it for the rest of his life.
Somehow, I don't think that you would be driving in that sort of condition. Most bad accidents are caused by aggressive driving, drink driving or driving while over tired. So I don't think you should let that put you off learning. Your risk of causing an accident is low if you take a common sense approach.
I have seen a lot of accidents, but then I'm on the roads quite a lot. I've even had them happen right next to me and that's loud! Mostly they're rear enders in rush hour and no injuries. Now and then it's something more severe, but this was the first time it's really been up close. Usually the police are already there and I'm seeing things from a distance.
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It's the other people on the road that gets me. That, and trucks.
I try not to think too much about that as it's beyond my control. If possible, trucks get a wide berth!
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Well written MSH. An unfortunate occurrence of modern life.
SK.
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Thank you.
Man versus machine is never going to come out well for man.
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My brother, @danclarke has seen some stuff, doing rescue work. He went to one crash where they carried the victim over to the helicopter; then Dan went back for his legs.
Pretty sure they managed to re-attach them, which is pretty incredible.
Oh gosh, I bet he has! Not sure I could cope with that. I suppose you learn to switch off and get one with what you need to do at the time.
That's amazing to be able to reach him in time and reattach his legs! Certainly a better end to his accident than this poor guy's.
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It makes sense when you think about it. They don't call the helicopter out unless it's going to make a difference; so the real bad cases like yours, he doesn't get sent to; likewise the ones that can be managed by regular ambulances.
Kind of nerve wracking to think you're only being sent out to the crucial ones which could go either way.
Must be tough when you don't manage to save them.
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He seems to cope with it okay. The bad thing already happened; he's just there making a dramatic, positive difference.
Oh my gosh. Hugs to you. That kind of thing is so horrifying. This is why so many firefighters and ambulance medics get PTSD. :(
I saw the "nsfw" tag and normally don't click on those, but then I saw it was you, and thought - huh?
I usually associate nsfw with sexual content, so it was a bit weird using it! I think the warning needed to be there, though, as there are younger people here and not everyone is okay reading something like this.
When you read in the news about accidents like this you don't realise how much you're protected from the real horror of it. It's never as cut and clean as 'they died.'
Gosh, yes! Imagine having to deal with that regularly! It's PTSD or switching off any emotion.
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DX
At least she didn't see much? D:
I'm kind of concerned about the stuff my cousin is going to encounter now, he's studying medicine and currently decided he wants to work in A&E.
She didn't see the leg, but she did see the cross section on the body where it should have been. She likened it to being like what you see in a cartoon, so perhaps her young mind found that the best way to deal with it?
My mum was a nurse and she did a stint in A&E for her training. She chose to go into rehab for the elderly...
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Hello @minismallholding, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!