Please be safe

[AquaTec]

Well I just got off duty, and I spent the better part of the evening at a terrible car accident.

this was not the usual type where someone was drinking or fell asleep at the wheel.

a father and his son was simply driving home from a day fun together. driving the road they know well, at a normal speed for that road. about 60 kilometers/hr.

well he just drifted over the yellow line ever so slightly, no more than any of us have done.

he hit Ford Explorer head on, well not even head on. more like head light to head light. the girl in the other vehicle was also doing the speed limit, nothing out of the ordinary.

except she wasn't wearing her seat belt

two simple little things we have all done, one crossing over the line very slightly, the other not wearing a seat belt.

the injuries where horific, I won't go into details except to say that everybody survived barely but will never be the same.

the point of this post, please remember that this happend as a result of what i would call ordinary behavior, with just a moment of distraction, and /or complacency.

you know most motor vehicle accidents happen within 5 miles of the home, and most people do not wear their seat belts when just running errands around town. and most traffic violations are for minor driving infractions within five miles of the home.

it is when we are close to home that we are the most careless/complacent ......... be carefull...please

 

[Soggy]

One of the many reasons why I won't move my car until everyone in it is belted up...something I think everyone should do. I have a friend who always tells the one in a million story where someone was saved because they didn't have their seatbelt on. He just doesn't seem to understand that that represents WAY less than 1% of accidents. He's a smart guy, too, but never drives with his belt on. Some day, I'm afraid he's going to learn the hard way. I hope not, but I've met very few people who have never been in a major auto accident.

 

[weight_for_me]

I know where you're coming from Aqua....been in that situation many times. As a volunteer FF, when the pager goes off and you hear MVA, you just hope to god thats its only a fender-bender. There are 2 sad parts to the story...one is that most accidents ARE PREVENTABLE and the other is that we remember them all.
Randy...

 

[Patience]

Friday it was pouring here, by the bucketfull.

I had the misfortune to be first on the scene of a single car accident. My first aid kit and cell phone were both in my truck, which my husband had taken for a diving weekend. What I did have was a three month old. It was not the ideal time to have to render first aid. (As if there is one.)

The car was totalled. It belonged to the driver's boss. The accident occured only because the driver wasn't familiar with the characteristics of a rear-wheel drive car. (He bounced it off both sides of the bridge.) He accelerated too quickly from the merge for the wet driving conditions.

The driver had a huge bruise forming behind his ear, and had blood all down the right side of his head and face. It wasn't until the state troopers arrived and loaned me their first aid kit that I realised most, if not all of the blood, came from a gash behind his ear.

He wasn't wearing his seat belt. He's twenty-something, and still thinks he's immortal. Well, at least until his boss gets ahold of him -- that was his big concern.

While I was reassuring him, I worked in a gentle lecture about the importance of wearing seat belts. I hope he took some of it to heart. He wouldn't have been injured at all if he'd only belted himself in -- as the law here requires.