Feb 28, 2017 22:04
Setting: New York State, late 1980’s
Previous research: a lot of Google searches establishing that these injuries are possible though I’m not sure about likeliness, going through the “cars” and “car accidents” tags here, Googling what to do if you see a deer on the road (so I established my character kinda did the wrong thing), and posting on an old Yahoo group for medical questions for fan fic writers, which I fear is defunct now. For the second part of my question, I went through the archives of this community, tried various searches on LGBT travel in New York State on Google and Wikipedia, and even went through a 1987 edition of The New Yorker looking at ads relating to vacation rentals.
I’m wondering if my scenario is plausible. I am writing a car accident that should result in minor enough injuries to both characters that they can mostly patch themselves up after finding a drug store. I’d like to have the driver successfully swerve to one side to avoid something, probably a deer, but hit some trees and the guard rail resulting in minor injuries and damage to the car. The driver should be bleeding in a couple places; I’m thinking a cut to his forehead and, ideally, one hand, if that’s possible (I was thinking a broken driver side window so some shards could have cut his hand). I want something that’s nowhere near life-threatening, but bleeding enough to be a bit worrisome and take a while to stop without having a first aid kit or bandages at hand.
I was also thinking the passenger, the driver’s boyfriend, will have fairly minor whiplash. I can have them both be bruised, too, but would rather avoid anything requiring assistance from another passing car, and this is set before cell phones so an immediate 911 call is impossible. I plan to have my characters patch themselves up, make it to their hotel, and ask if there’s “a doctor in the house” to get better assistance later. Is this plausible based on the scenario above? Also, if a doctor is called upon to assist someone in an informal setting like that, do you have any idea how that’s likely to work?
Finally, I would love to be able to name drop my characters’ destination. It should be somewhere in New York State that was a reasonably safe, plausible destination for a same sex couple at that time (although if necessary, I can have them not be terribly open, attitudes to the LGBT community being what they were) looking to get away from it all for a weekend.
Thanks so much in advance. I hope this community never loses steam or gets defunct!
~medicine: injuries (misc),
usa: new york (misc),
1980-1989,
~car accidents