Posted on Tuesday, 28th February 2006 by Bull
Well this morning was a bit disturbing.
I had just come home, waited for my dad to get dressed, so we could eat breakfast together at the local coffee shop, like we usually do after I get off of work.
I started to walk towards my car, but my dad said that he’ll drive in his car. We go on down the road, discussing what would happen if the contract I was working under ended. We were a bit down Hghwy 11, and I looked up and saw some type of road block.
No, it was an accident. A head-on collission. . . and we were the first on the scene. We both said “shit” almost in unison. As soon as he stopped the car, I ran towards the closest vehicle, a small blue pickup. There was a man inside, dazed, the smoke from the airbag just beginning to settle.
I pounded on his window and yelled if he could hear me, and he gave a slight nod, barely perceptable. I yanked on his door with all my might, even putting my foot against the body of the truck for leverage, but it didn’t give. My dad suggested trying the other side. I ran around to the passenger side and yanked on the handle. . . it was locked. At this point I looked over towards the other vehicle. Shes dead. the thought flashing so quickly I hardly blinked before pounding on his window again, asking if he could unlock the door for me. He was in shock, he probably didn’t even know where he was.
I was about to kick the window in when dad came by with a sledge hammer, and after two taps the glass shattered.
The glass had barely stopped falling when I unlocked the door and yanked it opened. I crawled onto the seat a bit and took the man by the shoulders. He barely noticed me. From what I could tell, he had some cuts and bruises. Not too bad, but he was in shock, and that can kill a human faster than anything. The mind shuts down, survival forgotten, you give up. I kept him talking. I asked him his name. After repeating it three times I finally understood “Joe” and the last name was incomprehensible. I asked him where he was going, and after he told me Hattiesburg, I heard the EMS down the highway, and I told him help was on the way. Joe kept shifting around, moving this way and that, and I played hell trying to keep him still. I told him if he kept moving around he may hurt himself. He was gone, he could barely understand me.
All this time I kept looking over to the lady in the white cadillac. She hadn’t moved an inch. I jumped out and ran over there, surveying the damage. The front of her old cadi had completely crumpled, and her midsection was pinned from the dash. No seatbelt. Her head was resting on the door, window open. Her eyes were closed. Oil was spattered on her face. She was a bit obese. She looked like she had been dead for an hour. I could faintly smell fat. Not burning fat, but just fat. I checked her pulse, and I had to almost stop breathing to feel it, it was so faint. There was no way getting her out. She was pinned so I wouldn’t have been surprised she would die from internal bleeding. EMS on the scene, they rush over to the lady and I go back to Joe. He’s still trashing around, now attempting to crawl out of the window. I had to hold him down and soothe him. I felt like I was soothing a baby, using small caring words and teling him everthing was going to be OK.
I could hear the compressor of the Jaws of Life kicking on, and metal scraping and bending, the car seperating. Another lady from EMS came with a backboard, and I helped her get Joe onto it. We had to hold him down until we could get the straps in place for all his trashing about. There he was going to the hospital, and now I just watched them pry the poor lady from her vehicle. She was still out cold, and I thought it for the better, if she had been awake she would have felt her own pain.
The dash is now seperated from her body, and they begin to slowly pull her onto the stretcher. Her clothes were tattered in multiple places. Her left pant leg almost gone. Her lower left leg had almost been completely severed, an inch of tissue holding it there. First thing I noticed was that there was absolutely no blood coming from the wound. The part of the car had gone in there so fast the blood couldn’t escape. They pronounced her DOA as soon as she was completely on the stretcher. The pressure of the dash had kept her alive only slightly. I just stared as they covered her up with a sheet.<br />
I walked up to one of the firemen for something to clean my hands with, and he gave me some sani cloths, and I gave one to my dad.
I surveyed the scene a bit. Joe had been traveling south to Hattiesburg, and she had come into his land so quickly he barely had time to react. His braking distance was only about 8 feet long. The lady had either A: Fell asleep. B: looked down for something and turned the wheel. C: Or she was turning into the driveway at the scene and hadn’t seen him coming.
I was glad no children had been involved. They were both alone in their vehicles. I think even if she had had her seatbelt on, the dash and steering wheel would still have killed her.
I wish I had gotten Joes last name. Undoubtedly he wouldn’t remember me, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the hospital in a few days.
Well, that was my morning, about 4 hours ago. I’m off to bed.
Posted in Daily Life | Comments (0)
