Samaritanism
As too often happens, I have fallen into a state of busy and neglected my blogging duties. I had so much news to write on fieldwork, contracts/grants with various agencies, new responsibilities at my little island lab, wedding gigs, concert gigs, coming concert seasons, etc., but have been distracted by a singular brief event that occurred last night.
I returned home from a rehearsal, removed my sandals, and was chatting with my wife, daughter, and a neighbor in the front yard. We live immediately next to Smoky Row, a somewhat substantial suburban traffic artery that becomes Liberty Rd. as it crosses into Delaware Co. just to the north. As we were chatting, we heard a long, loud skid and a very loud crash. Looked to Smoky Row to see an SUV on its side immediately behind a car with its rear end smashed.
Such occurrences don't send me into internal debate about potential liability, how my own relevant skill set might be limiting, etc. Without time for thought, I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and dialed 911 as I ran to the scene. For a short while, I was juggling conversation with emergency-service dispatchers and the man trapped in the SUV. Other people were arriving on the scene, some with cell phones also dialing 911. I confirmed emergency crews had been dispatched and hung up.
The driver's side of the SUV was the one on the ground and was relatively distorted. I didn't want to be under unstable wreckage and so was yelling to the trapped man from above. He was moving and coherent. Said he was OK, just trapped. The doors were locked and he had no means to unlock them from his smashed driver's side door. There was a fair amount of purplish fluid leaking from the crushed engine compartment. I think it may have been transmission fluid. ...And then his horn engaged and provided a noisy accompaniment for all to follow.
The young man from the passenger car also told me he was fine. In the crash, his seat had collapsed backwards. Something had gashed his right hand, but it wasn't serious.
While this was happening, some of the traffic back up began angrily beeping horns at each other trying to jockey for position in the one open lane to be on their way. I'm certain many of them were witnesses of the impact, who, by law, are required to remain and give an account to police. Shameful. I do know at least one northbound witness of the southbound accident did remain on the scene. In spite of being an insurance processor for OSU Internal Medicine and not a traffic cop, Mrs. Eugene stepped into the road to direct traffic.
...And then the fire crews and police arrived. Police officially closed the road and interviewed the young man who was untrapped. Fire crews began breaking windows on the SUV and carving it apart with the "jaws of life" to extract the trapped man. The trapped man did appear to be fine and eventually walked himself to the ambulance. In the process of extraction, the fire crew thankfully was kind enough to cut the SUV's battery line and kill the horn.
It appears the young man in the passenger car was turning left onto a side street when the SUV barreled down on him from behind. I didn't see the impact, but from the wreckage it appears to me that the southbound SUV had to have recently passed the traffic light at Hard Rd. immediately to the north; it must have been green and not caused him to slow in the slightest. He had to be comfortably above the speed limit. I'm guessing he saw the stopped, soon-to-be-turning car too late to stop himself and, at the last moment, tried to swerve to avoid impact, but ended up rolling his vehicle on its side as he struck the car.
I am enjoying the aftermath of running around amongst shattered glass and wreckage debris in bare feet. Somewhere, I seem to still have one small, irritating splinter in each foot. I saw a news report on "bystander syndrome" just yesterday morning, a trendy new name given to the occasional phenomenon of a largish number of witnesses doing nothing when observing another person in trouble; seeing others do nothing causes everybody to do nothing: "I don't want to get involved", "I don't know how to help", "Nobody else is doing anything so this thing must not be what it appears", etc. I never want to be one of those guys, one who enables the inactivity of the people around me by example.
...And now for something completely different:
This afternoon, I have a wedding gig at the Hyatt Regency downtown, and the marvelous Caroline Hong is playing a fund-raiser for my own concert series tonight. If you happen to be invited to the wedding, I'll see you there. If not, then tonight at Caroline's concert...
The Columbus Guitar Society
I returned home from a rehearsal, removed my sandals, and was chatting with my wife, daughter, and a neighbor in the front yard. We live immediately next to Smoky Row, a somewhat substantial suburban traffic artery that becomes Liberty Rd. as it crosses into Delaware Co. just to the north. As we were chatting, we heard a long, loud skid and a very loud crash. Looked to Smoky Row to see an SUV on its side immediately behind a car with its rear end smashed.
Such occurrences don't send me into internal debate about potential liability, how my own relevant skill set might be limiting, etc. Without time for thought, I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and dialed 911 as I ran to the scene. For a short while, I was juggling conversation with emergency-service dispatchers and the man trapped in the SUV. Other people were arriving on the scene, some with cell phones also dialing 911. I confirmed emergency crews had been dispatched and hung up.
The driver's side of the SUV was the one on the ground and was relatively distorted. I didn't want to be under unstable wreckage and so was yelling to the trapped man from above. He was moving and coherent. Said he was OK, just trapped. The doors were locked and he had no means to unlock them from his smashed driver's side door. There was a fair amount of purplish fluid leaking from the crushed engine compartment. I think it may have been transmission fluid. ...And then his horn engaged and provided a noisy accompaniment for all to follow.
The young man from the passenger car also told me he was fine. In the crash, his seat had collapsed backwards. Something had gashed his right hand, but it wasn't serious.
While this was happening, some of the traffic back up began angrily beeping horns at each other trying to jockey for position in the one open lane to be on their way. I'm certain many of them were witnesses of the impact, who, by law, are required to remain and give an account to police. Shameful. I do know at least one northbound witness of the southbound accident did remain on the scene. In spite of being an insurance processor for OSU Internal Medicine and not a traffic cop, Mrs. Eugene stepped into the road to direct traffic.
...And then the fire crews and police arrived. Police officially closed the road and interviewed the young man who was untrapped. Fire crews began breaking windows on the SUV and carving it apart with the "jaws of life" to extract the trapped man. The trapped man did appear to be fine and eventually walked himself to the ambulance. In the process of extraction, the fire crew thankfully was kind enough to cut the SUV's battery line and kill the horn.
It appears the young man in the passenger car was turning left onto a side street when the SUV barreled down on him from behind. I didn't see the impact, but from the wreckage it appears to me that the southbound SUV had to have recently passed the traffic light at Hard Rd. immediately to the north; it must have been green and not caused him to slow in the slightest. He had to be comfortably above the speed limit. I'm guessing he saw the stopped, soon-to-be-turning car too late to stop himself and, at the last moment, tried to swerve to avoid impact, but ended up rolling his vehicle on its side as he struck the car.
I am enjoying the aftermath of running around amongst shattered glass and wreckage debris in bare feet. Somewhere, I seem to still have one small, irritating splinter in each foot. I saw a news report on "bystander syndrome" just yesterday morning, a trendy new name given to the occasional phenomenon of a largish number of witnesses doing nothing when observing another person in trouble; seeing others do nothing causes everybody to do nothing: "I don't want to get involved", "I don't know how to help", "Nobody else is doing anything so this thing must not be what it appears", etc. I never want to be one of those guys, one who enables the inactivity of the people around me by example.
...And now for something completely different:
This afternoon, I have a wedding gig at the Hyatt Regency downtown, and the marvelous Caroline Hong is playing a fund-raiser for my own concert series tonight. If you happen to be invited to the wedding, I'll see you there. If not, then tonight at Caroline's concert...
The Columbus Guitar Society