|
|
Post by Lesterstrat on Feb 3, 2024 21:22:52 GMT -5
Last night coming home from dinner. 17 yr old male on his way to work (in his lane) got nailed by an elderly lady who clearly been drinking. I didn’t see it happen, but it happened just seconds before I got to there. I was a medic in the Air Force so I triaged both quickly as I got another person that rolled up to call 911.
Contrary to what we all hear, she was actually injured worse than the kid. The kid was, naturally, quite excited, but I got him settled down and had him put pressure on a deep laceration on his arm. The lady, probably in her 70s, had a nose bleed (from smacking the airbag) and complained her leg was hurting. It was dark, but I saw no obvious injury. There were no broken bones that I feel. But who knows for sure. And, she wreaked of alcohol.
We live in Hot Springs Village, AR which is the largest (26k acres), private, gated retirement community in the country. I don’t know what it is, but there seems to be this notion with some of the folks here that staying within the gates is like driving around in their yard or something. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
We’re really just our own self contained city. We have police, fire, etc… just like any other city and local, state and federal laws apply here just like anywhere else.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mfitz804 on Feb 3, 2024 21:37:33 GMT -5
Good on you for stopping to assist, many people would not have.
Regarding the injury thing, being someone who works in that industry, while it’s true that the drink person is often less injured, it’s also true that younger people tend to fare better than older people (to a point of course, depends on severity, etc.).
That could be what was at play.
|
|
|
|
Post by Taildragger on Feb 3, 2024 23:41:55 GMT -5
One of my vivid memories from childhood (I was about 7 at the time) is of rolling up on a head-on collision on PCH. All the "moving parts" were literally just coming to rest as the grisly tableau came into view. It was particularly bad because this was in the mid-1950s, even before mandatory lap belts and dash pads. The cars were a 1955 Buick convertible and a 1950 Dodge station wagon. The lady driving the Buick had done a face plant into her heavy-gauge, all-metal dash and the man driving the wagon had been thrown partially out the door, landing on the back of his head and the small of his back with his calves still resting on the bench seat. Both were unconscious. One or the other of them must've taken their eyes off the road and drifted into the oncoming lane, because there were no side roads right there onto which they could've been turning. Or, being as it happened on a long, sweeping curve, maybe somebody was just going way too fast.
There was something about its just having happened that added to the shock value, even for a young kid: it made me think, "wow...just a few seconds ago, everything was hunky-dory for those people...and then, all of a sudden, it wasn't."
Probably my first lesson in mortality.
|
|
|
|
Post by jazzguy on Feb 4, 2024 0:28:50 GMT -5
The only time when I was first on the scene was when I was about 15 or so and waiting in front of a small shopping plaza to cross a busy 2 lane road, 1 in each direction.
A guy in a compact car had come to a stop in front of me waiting for a break in oncoming traffic to turn into the plaza.
Just then a big Olds 225 rear-ended the compact car at about 50 mph propelling it's driver's head through the windshield. His head was a bloody mess and he was in shock so I ran into a pizza shop in the plaza and got some towels til the cops showed up.
|
|
|
|
Post by Laker on Feb 4, 2024 8:57:00 GMT -5
I was the first on the scene of a bad accident driving home around midnight one night on a dark four-lane street. I had the feeling that there was someone laying in one of the opposite lanes, so the first chance that I could, I passed through the center median and headed back the way I came.
I found a young girl laying in the road with her left leg nearly severed and a guy (think he was deceased) folded over the curbing a few feet away. His legs and butt were sitting on the road and, from his mid back up, he was flat on the terrace between the road and sidewalk. His spine seemed to exactly fit the shape of the curbing. A male nurse was next to arrive and while we were putting a blanket over the girl (eyes were rolled back in her head) a guy came staggering out of the brush behind the kid laying on the curbing.
What had happened was the three of them were in a speeding car where the driver lost control and slid sideways into a stand of trees. The impact with the trees sheared the frontend of the car off at the firewall and spun the body of the car tossing the three occupants out. I think the girl was somehow run over by the car body. If I remember the scene correctly the frontend of the car was around fifty feet east of the remainder of the car. I think we ended up spending around two hours there working with police to control traffic.
|
|
|
|
Post by Auf Kiltre on Feb 4, 2024 9:36:28 GMT -5
Good on you for Hot Springing into action, Lester. Glad it wasn't worse.
The one thing I learned living in a gated retirement community in Florida, a lot of sad elderly people who find themselves alone. I suppose those with alcohol issues can become quite the hazard. An old friend back there recently totaled his and another guys golf cart. He was sober but the guy he hit pled with him not to call the cops (despite several broken ribs) because he had been drinking.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lesterstrat on Feb 4, 2024 11:03:21 GMT -5
Good on you for Hot Springing into action, Lester. Glad it wasn't worse. The one thing I learned living in a gated retirement community in Florida, a lot of sad elderly people who find themselves alone. I suppose those with alcohol issues can become quite the hazard. An old friend back there recently totaled his and another guys golf cart. He was sober but the guy he hit pled with him not to call the cops (despite several broken ribs) because he had been drinking. Yeah, two things you have to be on the lookout for when driving around the Village: deer & golf carts. Lol |
|
|
|
Post by Leftee on Feb 4, 2024 11:19:35 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by RufusTeleStrat on Feb 4, 2024 13:35:34 GMT -5
Only in Mi
|
|
