I was stopped at a set of traffic lights, wondering idly why the traffic in the left (i.e., outer, or closest to the kerb) lane hadn't been moving, when I looked up around 80m ahead, and saw a truck stopped as it was evidently turning left. Perhaps traffic, I thought? Then I saw the driver running down the LEFT (i.e. passenger) side of his truck, and saw the upper half of someone lift themselves off the road into view, and flop onto the nature strip. Moments later, the driver picked up a bicycle and leaned it against a nearby signpost.
Damn. At least the driver was doing the right thing, and would have a radio plus phone and so be able to get help.
It was a bit difficult to understand what had happened. If I looked at where the truck was stopped, and that the cyclist was near the rear of the tandem trailer (the truck was what we term a B-double) ... had the cyclist ridden into the truck, or had the truck turned without indicating?
I don't know. I probably never will - and, given that someone was hurt, I really don't care what caused it.
What I do know is that the truck driver talked to the cyclist - well, he leaned over, hand on her shoulder, and I - from 80m away - assumed he was talking to her. Then he went back, got into his truck, and drove off!
****! There were at least a dozen cars closer than me to the accident scene, but no-one was showing any signs of getting out. I was in the centre lane, so I couldn't park because of the stopped cars (the traffic lights were still red) on my left. I looked at the other side of the road: no parking, but a servo (service station), I could do a U-turn and park there.
As I looked back to the front of my car to prepare to move, however, I saw a whole group of people arrive to help her - and the truck driver also turned up, so he had evidently been moving his truck to avoid blocking traffic (probably well-meant, but I suspect the traffic police would have wanted it left where it was so they could measure and assess who to blame).
OK, I would have fairly clearly been redundant, and maybe even just one of those onlookers (I hate the ghouls who stare and treat accidents and others' misfortune as entertainment - goes back maybe to when I was a kid and idiot hit our car and I was being stared at by some young men who were amused at my distress) who gets in the way, so I kept going, and sent the poor cyclist as much healing as I could, and a little to the truck driver as well.
But I did quite a bit of thinking as I drove to work (well, I usually do, anyway).
I hate helping at accidents. If I'm asked about it, my answer is usually that I hate seeing people hurt in real life, and I'm not too fussed about a lot of blood.
Yeah, I know, weak and wimpy.
Yet most of the accidents that have stayed with me haven't involved a lot of blood. One of the first I had to deal with was when I was out jogging while at uni, and a car drove around a corner too fast, hit a roundabout, and rolled over. As the car rolled, it partly turned, and a car coming the other had no chance but to run into the ROOF of the rolled over car. I don't think any of us (only two, actually - me, and the driver of the car that had been coming up the hill, who reversed, stopped and got out while his passenger ran into a house to get someone to ring for an ambulance) sprinting to the rolled over car were looking forward to what we were going to find, but the drunk driver only had a cut finger. (Which reminds me of the story a nurse friend at that time told me, of her mother seeing a drunk get hit by a train, fly through the air, and then stagger to his feet, swear, and toddle off - apparently none the worse for wear.) I left my details as a witness, but wasn't needed as the drunk driver admitted his fault.
I came across another drunk driver who had had a prang a couple of years later, when I working on the edges of outback Queensland. He admitted he had been driving too fast, and drinking, and had slid on a corner, ending up going rear end first into an embankment. The problem was, he hadn't been wearing a seat belt, and had flown up in the car, and left a very visible dent upwards in the roof where his head had hit.
He claimed to have a couple of mates a few minutes or so (yeah, right - I was with him for an hour, and didn't see anyone) behind, and was worried about being charged for drink-driving, so he asked to be taken to a nearby pub. I talked to him about the dangers of concussion, including the dangers of masking it with alcohol, but he was insistent, so we left a note saying where he was on the car (it was off the road, out of the way) and took him to the pub. At least other people were there, and they could keep an eye on him. They also had a phone: this was in the days before mobile phones had yet been invented, so getting access to a landline was good. If need be, they could get a chopper in.
As soon as I got back to civilisation after that trip, I bought the biggest first aid kit I could find - one that was like a small suitcase, and added it to the two spare tyres, 12V soldering iron, folding shovel, space blanket, ropes, tow wire, tool kit and other paraphernalia I kept there.
I was working in some pretty isolated places at the time, and had to be fairly self-reliant if anything happened. (I was very disappointed, many years later, when I found part of the soldering iron had fallen off, and I couldn't use it ... at least I was living in town most of the time then, so it didn't matter.)
The next accident I want to write about was probably around a year or so after that, and also involved a truck. The conditions were wet, that sort of wet it can get with tropical rain, and a stupid car driver had cut in front of a truck - too close, and going slower than the truck, so the truck driver had slammed on the brakes, and slid off the road - right over three teenage girls who were walking along the edge of the road.
No mobile phones in those days, so one of the people helping took off to tell the girls' parents (they were all conscious, and could give names and addresses), and I helped get two of them into the ambulance. One girl was screaming with shock and pain, but pain only in her face, and she was not moving: she probably had a damaged spinal cord. The other had at least a severely bruised leg, too injured to walk on.
That was one accident, despite the lack of blood or visible gore, that stays vividly with me, now, more than 30 years later.
(Coincidentally, that accident also led to the ending of a relationship. I arrived home distressed and wanting to talk, but my then-partner wanted to keep watching TV. I am infinitely better off now - my partner has been very supportive today - despite being in terrible pain from an abscess - following this morning's accident.)
So, to today.
I've been thinking, of late, that pedestrians - and some cyclists - seem more suicidal than normal, almost like they are at Christmas. I don't know why it is, but I've considered writing a post about it.
I guess now I am.
There's a lot to consider about safety on the roads, and it largely comes down to being alert, RESPONSIBLE, and remembering that you are SHARING the road.
I think, however, it is important to for pedestrians and cyclists - and (motor)bike riders - to remember that, if they're in a collision with car or truck, it isn't likely that the car or truck will be worse off, no matter how in the wrong the card driver is.
Our local tram company has a safety campaign based on pointing out that trams weigh the equivalent of 30 rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?), beside a drawing of a rhino on a skateboard, and asking people to take the appropriate sort of care.
That's sorta along the lines of what I'd been toying around with when I was thinking about doing a post, before this morning's accident. When we were gatherer-hunters, if you came across a predator, or even just a very large herbivore, you were careful. You knew you could be injured or killed, and of these, being injured was probably the worse.
These days, maybe people think they the right to be there so consequences be damned, they'll expect others to do the right thing - and they don't have any precautionary thoughts about what COULD happen. Maybe they're just so used to the situation that they have become blasé about the danger. Maybe it’s a misplaced chutzpah - or the sort of attitude that led to humans (arguably, deliberately?) wiping out anything they considered a danger (and a lot of things they considered good eating). Maybe it’s just the stresses and strains of living leading to tiredness and being too busy.
I don't know. Reminds of the "joke" about the tombstone that reads "here lies John Day, who died maintaining his right of way" * .
It doesn't matter, anyway. Just ... take care out there, please? Whether you're a driver, a pedestrian, a cyclist or a biker, take care.
And oh, if you're scared of helping at accidents, it may be worthwhile pushing yourself to do so. What is worst may not be what you expect, and it may lead to some good changes - such as doing first aid courses (they need to be kept up-to-date, by the way - I could do a post on the changes since my days as a kid in the lifesavers to my last course, where "ABC" had become "DR ABCH", but I'll spare you that).
It may lead to some changes, as well - not just in you, but in society.
Also, sometimes what people need isn't medical care. In the last refresher course I did (we have to do them every few years for work, but there are free course out there, I think - here in Australia, at any rate), when the instructor asked what could be the main concern of someone who had been injured, I was the only one to mentioned kids (no, I wasn't the only woman there, and there was at least one other woman there who also had kids) - as in, making sure someone knew to get a family member or trusted friend to pick them up from school/kindergarten/day care. Maybe the example of that man from the accident with truck and kids stayed with me more than I realised - but it shows that there is often more that can be done in situations than may at first be thought of. Maybe you can talk to the person who has been injured, just be there as a sort of instant friend.
Nothing psychic in this post, not much spiritual, and a bit morbid. My apologies; it was about my needs, this time, not yours :) At least I may be able to get to sleerp now ...
* That also reminds me of one time I - still a teenager - was on a protest committee in my local sailing club. Two of the skippers in one particular class didn't like each other, and had a collision. Well, there are rules that govern how sailing races are held (nothing like as complicated or contentious as the rightfully maligned America's Cup stuff, by the way), and each skipper protested the other for breaking the rules. Well, we found that ... let's call him Skipper A, had broken what is called the port-starboard right of way rule, so should be disqualified for that, but Skipper B had made no effort to avoid a collision, which broke a recently introduced rule stating the obvious, that one should avoid a collision - so ... I did some fancy arguing, and we also disqualified Skipper B as well.
Was I popular, or what!
But collisions were noticeably avoided by all for some time, and Skippers A and B kept their resentments towards each other down to a simmering boil ... and maybe others got to think about how some situations don't have winners.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")
May the world of commerce & business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
Tags: about me, common sense, danger, society,
First published: Manadagr, 21st May, 2012
Last edited: Monday, 21st May, 2012
