I was just driving back into the office from lunch, and ended up seeing something pretty disturbing. I'm driving along on the interstate, and a car maybe 40 car lengths ahead of me spins out, slams into the wall on the left side, then cuts back across 3 lanes of traffic to then hit a ditch, which ended up rolling the car a few times and ejecting the driver. I pulled over -- partially to make sure he was OK and partially because I had to pull right to avoid hitting the car in front of me anyway -- but by the time I came to a stop, the people that were closer to him had already run up to him and had begun calling 911.
Pretty scary, really. Guy was just lying there motionless, and it's 30 degrees right now, so you know for him to have been ejected, he had to have gone through a closed window, so he's probably plenty messed up. I never saw him move, but someone did put a jacket over him but didn't cover his face, so that's probably a positive sign. Hope he makes it.
I actually never got out of my car because by the time I got my car stopped, there were probably a dozen people that were already making their way up there. At that point, I was in a quandary. I have no medical training, so it isn't like I could do anything to help and there were already plenty of people there to offer whatever assistance non-medically-trained people can offer. Also, I didn't see the start of the accident well enough to be able to offer the police any sort of meaningful statement, so I'm basically useless. If I get out at that point, I feel like I'd be an unhelpful gawker, while if I leave, I'm an uncaring bastard. I ultimately ended up pulling away when the emergency vehicles arrived, figured at that point I was destined to just be in the way.
Anyway, the moral of all this: stay safe out there and wear your damn seatbelts. Watching that sort of thing really gets you thinking...
Pretty scary, really. Guy was just lying there motionless, and it's 30 degrees right now, so you know for him to have been ejected, he had to have gone through a closed window, so he's probably plenty messed up. I never saw him move, but someone did put a jacket over him but didn't cover his face, so that's probably a positive sign. Hope he makes it.
I actually never got out of my car because by the time I got my car stopped, there were probably a dozen people that were already making their way up there. At that point, I was in a quandary. I have no medical training, so it isn't like I could do anything to help and there were already plenty of people there to offer whatever assistance non-medically-trained people can offer. Also, I didn't see the start of the accident well enough to be able to offer the police any sort of meaningful statement, so I'm basically useless. If I get out at that point, I feel like I'd be an unhelpful gawker, while if I leave, I'm an uncaring bastard. I ultimately ended up pulling away when the emergency vehicles arrived, figured at that point I was destined to just be in the way.
Anyway, the moral of all this: stay safe out there and wear your damn seatbelts. Watching that sort of thing really gets you thinking...
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