Trauma part 2
So on Monday morning I was considerably tired after a long, sleepless night. I was walking from my bus stop to work when I witnessed a tragic and traumatic accident.
I was on the block of my work, walking northbound on 5th Avenue, walking towards Wall Street. About 20 to 25 feet ahead of me, also walking north on 5th Ave, was a person walking their dog. The person walked into a crosswalk, crossing Wall street, right in front of a car. I didn't see who had the right away. For a split second, I thought the car was going to hit the dog but the dog jumped back. But then I saw the care hit the person in the crosswalk. I thought this would be a moment of the car hits the person but the stops and the person and the driver exchange expletives. You see that sort of thing plenty of times, in the city, especially in the intersections around my work. But, unfortunately, it was not that at all.
I watched as the car kept going forward and pull the person underneath it. I started to yell "Stop! Stop! Stop!" as I hurried forward. It was like the car was gobbling up the person, like a monster in a movie. I saw the person go under the driver-side tire and disappear under the vehicle. It seemed to happen slowly but quickly at the same time. I kept thinking, 'oh my god back up, back up what are you doing?' The person had let go of the dog's leash and as I ran up to the car, I grabbed the leash, so the dog wouldn't run out into the street.
The driver, a rich, yuppy-looking guy with slicked back blonde hair, jeans, a white dress shirt and a navy blue blazer with a pocket square and shiny brown shoes, got out of the car (he was driving an Audi). He was afraid that he had hit the dog. He didn't seem to realize that he had run someone over until I said "They're still under there" and pointed to the car. Under the car was darkness but you could see the person's hand and part of her forearm underneath the driver's side door, he could have stepped on it getting out. The driver turned around and bent over, then quickly dove to the ground to look under the car.
"Oh my god!" He understandably started really panicking. Still, holding on to the dog's lead, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tried to call 911. I've learned that I'm a bit rubbish in emergency situations. At first, I kept pushing the wrong app on my phone. Two or three times I kept pushing the camera app then trying to back out of it, only to push the camera app again. I've got a picture of the street as well as video of the ground and me breathing heavily and grunting in frustration. I finally dialled 911 but I couldn't hear anything when I put the phone to my ear because I had forgotten that I still had my headphones plugged in (Headphone that I had ripped off my ears when running to the car). I hung up and I saw red and blue lights.
By amazing fucking happenstance it seemed the car behind him, a brown Chevy SUV, was an unmarked police car and out stepped a plainclothes officer. At least, I think it was the car right behind hum during the accident, I could be wrong, I wasn't paying attention to the car behind the one running over a person. It could have just showed up in the chaos. I'm not sure. The officer came out of his car, looked under the vehicle then went back in his car. I pulled the headphone jack out of my phone and called 911 again, this time getting through. I reported the accident but as I was on the phone, I could hear the sirens on their way. Luckily, the Belltown fire station is just a block away so the rescue team was here very quickly.
Soon it was very, very busy with firemen, more police officers, and the odd person from my work lingering around to see what the commotion was about. (I told a co-worker to inform whoever was in the President's Suite that I was a witness and would be late for work.)
When I saw the accident happen I couldn't tell if the victim hit was a man or a woman. Though I saw the person go under, and can still see it in my mind, in the morning haze I couldn't tell the gender of the person. As it turned out it was a woman. I could tell when I saw her arm poking out from under the car. The firemen used the wooden block to hold up the car and pull her out. I only saw her legs when she was on the gurney being taken to the ambulance. Again, kind of like a movie that was censoring violent content, there was always something or someone obstructing my view of her body. This is probably for the best.
I stood back against the building still holding the dog's leash while the emergency response crew did their work. The driver of the car had sat against the wall beside me in shock. The dog had kind of walked around him so the driver was between me and the dog, the leash kind of in the driver's face, but the driver just petted and held the dog for comfort. Eventually, the police asked the driver if he could hold the dog, and he stood up and did so while I pulled away for a moment and the police asked for my ID and phone number. They didn't take a statement or anything. All they wanted to know was if I saw who had the right of way. I did not. I told them a bit more but it wasn't really notated.
After they took my information I went back to where I was standing and they pulled driver away to ask him some questions. The driver handed the dog leash back to me. The dog--a grey schnauzer that reminded me an awful lot of The Webbs' dog, Bowser--was very well behaved. It didn't bark or pull away but it was clearly concerned about its owner. And this is where I have to try real hard to write this without crying because every time I think of that dog, I lose it.
Eventually, a female police officer came up to me and informed me that they had contacted a family member to come and collect the dog and that I was free to go. Feeling protective of this dog I was all "are you sure?" and She nodded. I told her I worked right in that building and i would make myself available if they needed me at all. I started to walk up Wall street to the entrance of my building. I looked back at dog and the lady police officer waved me off. I think they were trying to secure the area from gawkers. Of course, I could see the street if I looked out of the window from the President's suite. Which I did on occasion.
The police never contacted me that day. There was a lot of buzz about what had happened and word had gotten 'round that I saw everything. My boss and my colleague encouraged me to go home and get some rest but a feeling of not knowing what to do with myself, my sense of duty and wanting to work to take my mind off of seeing the image in my mind of her getting pulled under the car again and again, I held out at work until noon before catching a lyft home. . Before I went home, though I was spying on the situation from the window in the President's suite kitchen. I saw the driver being dismissed (about 11:30) and he went away with what looked like his wife or girlfriend (clearly the Audi was going to be impounded for a little while) By the time I went out to get my Lyft, Wall street was all clear like nothing had happened.
Of course, when I got home I gave Sparky a big hug before letting him out. I made it home just in time to greet the guy coming in to look at our furnace but that's a whole other story. Andy came home that afternoon too and did a good job of cheering me up. We still talked about the accident and I explained it to him.
So yeah, that was my Monday. I have included some pics behind the cut with explanations should my writing not paint a clear enough picture. Please feel free to skip.
This looking up Wall Street from 5th Ave. I was standing probably just out of the shot, to the right of this picture when it happened, to give you an idea of how close I was. I'm kind of a bad judge of distance.
This pic must have been taken while I was just out of the shot to the left, while I was talking to police. You can see the drive holding the dog leaning against the building. That is unless they gave him the dog after they excused me. But I returned the dog to the lady cop.
There's a reason I take the route I do to work every day. I avoid crossing 5th Ave at Wall because the drivers are always so aggressive, they frighten me. This guy, I don't know if he was distracted, looking at his phone, or what because he was clearly unaware that he had hit someone, despite the fact that she went under the driver's side front tire. I don't drive so I don't even know how that is possible that he couldn't see her but he seemed legitimately shocked to discover he had run over a human and not a dog. All of my class issues aside, and regardless of who was at fault he was obviously in shock and horrified and I feel for him as well well as feeling bad for the victim. As for the victim I saw her status go from "critical" to "life-threatening" in the news. I don't know if she pulled through but I emailed the SPD and they say that they haven't received word that the victim has passed so that's promising. I can remain hopeful that she and her pup will be reunited.