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ankle_brains · Dec 16, 2003, 11:21 AM

have you ever witnessed a car accident and stayed to be a witness for the police? did you offer to help?

or, did you just keep going as if nothing happened?

Mastrap · Dec 16, 2003, 11:24 AM

Have you ever posted a thread that isn't a question? What is this, some weird form of social research?

gorickey · Dec 16, 2003, 11:28 AM

Does causing wrecks count?!?

Turias · Dec 16, 2003, 11:47 AM

Will the madness ever end?

Sealobo · Dec 16, 2003, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by ankle_brains:
have you ever witnessed a car accident and stayed to be a witness for the police? did you offer to help?

or, did you just keep going as if nothing happened?

In my dream i witnessed you struck by a 18-wheeler... and everyone helped by cheering "encore".

Turias · Dec 16, 2003, 12:01 PM

Originally posted by Sealobo:
In my dream i witnessed you struck by a 18-wheeler... and everyone helped by cheering "encore".

Nooo! You broke the Thread of Questions! Now I have to wait for good ol' ankle to post another one. That should be within the next hour...

Sealobo · Dec 16, 2003, 12:23 PM

Originally posted by Turias:
Nooo! You broke the Thread of Questions! Now I have to wait for good ol' ankle to post another one. That should be within the next hour...

Holy macaroni... I didn't know that... let me rephrase:

In my dream i witnessed you struck by a 18-wheeler... and everyone helped by cheering "encore". I wonder if you were asking question at the moment of impact?

wdlove · Dec 16, 2003, 12:53 PM

I haven't driven a car since 1988. When I was driving, never witnessed a car accident. Have passed by the scene after the arrival of the police and EMT's.

Chemmy · Dec 16, 2003, 01:54 PM

Originally posted by wdlove:
I haven't driven a car since 1988

It's nice being able to use the T.

scadboy · Dec 16, 2003, 02:05 PM

One year, me and my dad were driving to our grandparents place in Pennsylvania, about a four hour drive from where we lived. It was snowing pretty hard and visibility was pretty poor. About ten minutes out of town, this Subaru in front of us got too close to the guardrail, hit it, and flipped over the guardrail, making a complete rotation before landing right-side up on the side of the road. We pulled over to see if the driver was alright.

My dad checked her out, she was conscious and, while disoriented, didn't appear to be hurt. I went off and flagged down a driver with a cell phone, and called the paramedics while my dad sat with her.

She was a little old lady, and all the while she was talking about how she had just bought the car, and how she was going to be late for work. We stuck around long enough to talk to the paramedics as they came to take her to hospital to check her out, and tell the cops what we saw.

In the end, she wasn't injured at all, though she didn't make it to work that day, hehe. When we got back from visiting my grandparents, she called us to thank us for calling the paramedics and staying with her. I guess she got our number from the cops.

This was about ten years ago, but to this day, If I see someone in distress, for so much as a flat tire, I'll stop to see if I can help. It's just my duty as a caring human being, though I know some people who won't stop for anything.

heartless bastards

ciao,

michael

macvillage.net · Dec 16, 2003, 03:26 PM

Never have... but never have been equiped either.

If I had some gloves, etc.... I probly would. I do have Red Cross First Aid (expired), as well as CPR Pro. Rescuer (expired).

The certs may be expired... but the knowledge is still good.

I would do help, within reason. I won't put myself in excessive danger, not use standard protection methods.

Won't touch drug overdoses, or things that appear to be. Remember hearing someone who got AIDS from a seringe in the person's pocket when over the body providing CPR... just that story creeped me out way to much. That's a risk I wouldn't take... especially since they did it to themselves.

But car accident, drowning, whatever... most likely would, provided the situation were right.

Thankfully, there enough people in my area with all the major hospitals in the surrounding cities, and around here... that you can't go anywhere public without bumping into a MD.

Many of those successful city doctors have large homes in the suburbs of NJ. Except the ER docs.

And with Robert Wood Johnson nearby, Princton Medical center (and all the doctors associated with it)...

they got the area covered.

But I would help... within reason.

I'm not going to put myself, or others at risk to help. But if I could do so with minimal risk, I thinK I can afford the average of 5-9 minutes for EMT's to arive and relieve me from the situation. After police interview... these situations normally waste about 45 minutes of your time, unless it's a murder, or something possibly criminal.

So yea... depends. I think most non-emt's/doctor's have a similar policy.

There are millions in the United States with training for such situations. Most teenagers have had a job that requires CPR certification these days. Many areas require or encourage CPR/firstaid certs for babysitting now... Lifeguarding, daycare, even summer camp jobs require it in most cases.

So it's an entire generation who made out with plastic dummies in CPR class

.

Many teachers these days have it as well.

Most security like jobs do as well.

Even some stores will pay employees extra if they have such certification. I've heard of clothing stores that will pay higher starting wages for those with valid certification. Reason being that it reduces the chances of an accidental death... hence reducing the chances the insurance gets tested.

I know many others who are similar. Will help, provided it can be done with minimal/no risk. Life isn't a movie. Hero's die in real life.

Won't do anything excessive... but if some first aid can save a life... I would be willing. It's no big deal. It's something a young child can/has done in the past.

It doesn't take a genious to be a hero. Just the willingness to spend a few moments to help.

And I'll do it, within reason.

I would hope others will as well. If that were so... the next generation will be pretty well off.

malvolio · Dec 17, 2003, 04:21 AM

Yes. No.

Oh, you want details?

capuchin · Dec 17, 2003, 03:30 PM

Yes - if by witnessed you mean "caused", and yes again, if by helped you mean "dropped a brick off a bridge into heavy traffic".

ryju · Dec 17, 2003, 03:41 PM

Originally posted by capuchin:
Yes - if by witnessed you mean "caused", and yes again, if by helped you mean "dropped a brick off a bridge into heavy traffic".

I've always wanted to try that...

fireside · Dec 17, 2003, 08:54 PM

i love how ankle_brains makes topics then never replies to them.

brapper · Dec 17, 2003, 09:02 PM

when i was in grade 2, and my class was on a field trip, we saw a woman drop her purse as she was waiting for a street car. Without looking she bent over into oncoming traffic and her head was struck by an ambulance...
I was too young for the irony...

Also, driving out east, my dad and I saw a little pick-up truck on fire on the side of the highway. When we stopped, to see if we could help in any way, we discovered the owners in their attached trailer with no idea that their truck had caught fire. Odd thing seeing a car go up in flames...nearly had a heart attack when the tires started exploding...a fire truck got there before the whole thing exploded though...

Beewee · Dec 17, 2003, 09:44 PM

Originally posted by gorickey:
Does causing wrecks count?!?

Ya...I have never witnessed an accident but I was in one before.

nredman · Dec 17, 2003, 10:37 PM

once i was out running (that was when i used to exercise on a regular basis) and i was at the crosswalk of a busy intersection and some guy tried to turn in front of an old guy in an SUV...so the guy turning left just rocks the old guy in the SUV in the front side of his car and then his car goes into the light pole straight across from me...on the other side of the intersection...good thing i didnt run faster or cut across traffic or else i may have gotten f'ed up. i asked the old guy if he was okay...he was too out of it..i think he said what do you think or something. someone else called for help on their cellphone...his airbag went off so he didnt look hurt at all...at least from what i could see.

scadboy · Dec 17, 2003, 10:48 PM

I was involved in an accident once, besides the one I witnessed and wrote about earlier. We had to evacuate Savannah my freshman year in college, because hurricane Floyd was supposed to hit, so I decided to ride up to the Alabama border with a friend.

Traffic was bumper to bumper all they way up, and when we got to Macon, the car infront of us stopped suddenly, but not so suddenly that my friend couldn't have stopped in time if he had noticed. I screamed JESUS CHRIST STOOOOOP! at the top of my lungs as I felt my "break NOW" reflex kick in.

Trouble was, my friend's deaf. He noticed when I started waving my hands wildly as we rammed into the rear of a volvo. He had been driving all day, the ride to Macon took about seven hours when it usually only takes two or three, so he was a little out of it. The lady was fine, her volvo was mostly fine, we were both okay, but his car was essentially totalled.

That was a fun day, I got to play interpreter between him and the lady he hit, the towing company, his insurance company, and the rent a car people. I knew sign language pretty well, but that was a very high stress situation, but it was all cool in the end. Of course, hurricane Floyd never touched down in Savnanah like it was supposed to, so I can't help but feel like it was all for naught.

michael

brapper · Dec 17, 2003, 10:55 PM

Originally posted by scadboy:
The lady was fine, her volvo was mostly fine, we were both okay, but his car was essentially totalled.
michael

indestructible volvos. my dad was once rear-ended by one of the commercial vans, sending him through the intersection. barely a scratch on our volvo, but the van's front end was totalled.

dampeoples · Dec 18, 2003, 12:56 AM

Yeah, I didn't help, the time it would have taken me to get there, there were already others helping. No need to crowd the scene, making it harder for the professionals to get there.

wang_himself · Dec 18, 2003, 12:58 AM

Yes and Yes.

bstone · Dec 18, 2003, 01:13 AM

As an EMT (I work on an ambulance part-time) I always carry a trauma kit in my trunk.

I have seen a fair share of accidents happen or was driving when I get to the scene of one where no help had yet arrived. More than once I feel that by my stopping and taking medical control of the situation may have saved a life or at least helped lesson severe injury.

The very first thing I do before getting out to help is call 911 on my cell phone. If I am in distance to dispatch, I call them on my radio, but it's really no difference. Help doesn't come quicker if you have a direct radio connection or a cell phone.

shabbasuraj · Dec 18, 2003, 04:11 AM

I saw a T-Bone'r once, got out and helped both parties...looked pretty vicious, luck no one was in the 'impact' side of the collision...

Zoom_zoom · Dec 18, 2003, 04:28 AM

The other day I had just driven about 800km and when i pulled into the street where my uncle lives i just missed a hyundi Exel smash into a harley. I got out too see if i could help, but there was nothing i could do, as they were already on the phone to the ambulance, i think the bike rider only broke her leg.

ZoOm ZoOm

Millennium · Dec 18, 2003, 06:53 AM

One time a couple of summers ago, I was at the office (summer job) and heard this horrible screeching outside. A bunch of us ran to the window just in time to see an ambulance to an Olympic-class floor routine, land on its side, and skid to a halt right outside the building. A co-worker and I ran to the scene and started pulling people out. In the end, though, my co-worker stayed as a witness for the police, and told me to go back in.

That made for a very interesting "What I Did Over The Summer" essay, but for some reason everyone focused on the incident earlier that summer, when (according to the legends, anyway) I found a dead body under the Brooklyn Bridge. What really happened is that the police were already there by the time my co-workers and I noticed it (we were inspecting a nearby overpass).

saxman · Dec 18, 2003, 03:52 PM

Seen lots, caused one.

I dunno what the rules are in the states, here it is an offence not to stop and "render assistance" if you witness a crash.

cheers

vsurfer · Mar 11, 2004, 03:39 PM

Once helped out a couple of kids who went into the windscreen of their little car when they hit a much larger sedan in the front. We saw it happen in front of us, so it was a no brainer to help and be witnesses.

Mostly it involved attending a little to some facial injuries involving glass -- they were lucky, could have been much worse -- and trying to comfort them as they were in a major state of shock--and trying to get to a phone -- this was before the age of cell phones -- to get the Emergency personnel and police there.

maxintosh · 04:26 PM

n/m

fireside · Mar 11, 2004, 04:20 PM

can we PLEASE stop bumping up threads from last year?

bstone · Mar 11, 2004, 04:25 PM

Can we PLEASE start bumping threads from last year?

maxintosh · Mar 11, 2004, 04:25 PM

Originally posted by fireside:
can we PLEASE stop bumping up threads from last year?

Didn't even notice that.. haha

bradoesch · Mar 11, 2004, 10:42 PM

I'd like to see a_b's final report on his MacNN surveys. His first seven questions should have good answers, but after that what will the report look like?

gorickey · Mar 11, 2004, 10:48 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
His first seven questions should have good answers, but after that what will the report look like?

Questionable....