(no subject)
Last night was revealing, in the sober, cold fashion that leaves you unsure of what to do afterwards.
I'd taken my bike out for another one of my nightly rides on the O. River Parkway. It's the best place to be at night - curves back and forth, no streetlights, little traffic. There's even an easy loop at the beginning of Wellington to turn right back around on.
It was on the way back home that I noticed a car seemingly stopped just past an intersection - no brake lights, no parking lights, no reversing lights, just stopped. I was thinking about maybe going around, but as I went through the intersection I ran over something (not sure what) with my tire, making me slow right down. Then I saw the passengers of the car all standing about, so I slowed down to a stop to see what was wrong. That's when the headlight on my bike illuminated the man wedged underneath the back of the stopped car.
I'm kind of surprised at what I could do next. I simply got off my bike, stripped out of my gear, and took control. Ambulance was already being called, so I grabbed a bystander to get me some gloves, or plastic bags to protect my hands. I checked for breathing, and for pulse, found none. At that time a second first aider appeared - parked his SUV so the lights shone on the whole thing. He actually had some bags handy, as well as a gas siphoning tube. We were trying to start some ventilation, at least, but were worried about a spinal injury - there was a massive bruise on the guy's neck, looked for all the world like somebody had clubbed him there with a baseball bat.
It was at that point, with the two of us still a little unsure of how to proprly open the airway without distrubing the head/neck that the first paramedic arrived. He got us to push the car in neutral away from the victim, roll him back flat (paramedic didn't give a crap about a neck injury, better prioritization than myself) and the second first aider started compressions. I helped the paramedic, although not much by that point. After only what seemed like a few seconds of this scenario, a fire truck arrived. Then another one. And some more paramedics. And some police cruisers. And some more police cruisers. And a few more paramedics. And some police cruisers. By my count there were at least 13 vehicles there by the end of the night.
Myself and the other guy were herded off by police, who were then trying to find witnesses, which we weren't. We simply stood off to the side, and chatted - mostly small talk, which to be honest was welcome. We watched the EMS crews go to work - doing simple chest compressions for a good ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Apparently there wasn't anything to be done though - the compressions stopped, and some paramedics began doing a detailed examination of what was now officially a body.
The next hour - hour and a half even? Was rather boring. Did get to chat with a police officer, which broke up the boredom. He used to have a Yamaha R1 - sold it the day he joined the force. Which is too bad, because having another motorcyclist on the force would maybe make enforcement of these new police state street racing laws a bit less of a scary prospect. I also got the chance to do a signed police statement - nothing about the accident as it happened, but all that transpired afterwards.
On the kind of cool side, apparently both the police and paramedics were very happy with the help and the statements that the other guy and myself provided.
I was almost stranded there for the night though. I'd left my jacket, gloves and helmet beside the accident scene. Which became a crime scene. Which meant removing them was disturbing the crime scene. Fortunately, I was allowed to take my gear and go home, as my stuff obviously was something that came in after the fact.
I've been writing this over the course of the day now, I guess. This was still only happening within 24 hours but it feels like a very long time ago now. I feel like I don't want to lose any details, but at the same time I'd really rather not forget. Just writing things down and talking to people about what I saw seems to feel right, so I guess I'll just go with that. I realize now I'm fortunate that I came on to the accident scene when I did. I was able to help organize the scene and make the paramedic's life easier, but without having to witness someone's transition from living, breathing human to corpse.
I've seen in the news that they couldn't ID the guy. That has to be the worst way for friends and family to find out - piecing together a description on the news to a missing son or even father.
I'm not really sure of what else to be writing here now - just don't quite feel like going to bed, despite having work in the morning. Oh well - with time, all things will pass I suppose. Hope long weekends elsewhere were less eventful than mine.
I'd taken my bike out for another one of my nightly rides on the O. River Parkway. It's the best place to be at night - curves back and forth, no streetlights, little traffic. There's even an easy loop at the beginning of Wellington to turn right back around on.
It was on the way back home that I noticed a car seemingly stopped just past an intersection - no brake lights, no parking lights, no reversing lights, just stopped. I was thinking about maybe going around, but as I went through the intersection I ran over something (not sure what) with my tire, making me slow right down. Then I saw the passengers of the car all standing about, so I slowed down to a stop to see what was wrong. That's when the headlight on my bike illuminated the man wedged underneath the back of the stopped car.
I'm kind of surprised at what I could do next. I simply got off my bike, stripped out of my gear, and took control. Ambulance was already being called, so I grabbed a bystander to get me some gloves, or plastic bags to protect my hands. I checked for breathing, and for pulse, found none. At that time a second first aider appeared - parked his SUV so the lights shone on the whole thing. He actually had some bags handy, as well as a gas siphoning tube. We were trying to start some ventilation, at least, but were worried about a spinal injury - there was a massive bruise on the guy's neck, looked for all the world like somebody had clubbed him there with a baseball bat.
It was at that point, with the two of us still a little unsure of how to proprly open the airway without distrubing the head/neck that the first paramedic arrived. He got us to push the car in neutral away from the victim, roll him back flat (paramedic didn't give a crap about a neck injury, better prioritization than myself) and the second first aider started compressions. I helped the paramedic, although not much by that point. After only what seemed like a few seconds of this scenario, a fire truck arrived. Then another one. And some more paramedics. And some police cruisers. And some more police cruisers. And a few more paramedics. And some police cruisers. By my count there were at least 13 vehicles there by the end of the night.
Myself and the other guy were herded off by police, who were then trying to find witnesses, which we weren't. We simply stood off to the side, and chatted - mostly small talk, which to be honest was welcome. We watched the EMS crews go to work - doing simple chest compressions for a good ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Apparently there wasn't anything to be done though - the compressions stopped, and some paramedics began doing a detailed examination of what was now officially a body.
The next hour - hour and a half even? Was rather boring. Did get to chat with a police officer, which broke up the boredom. He used to have a Yamaha R1 - sold it the day he joined the force. Which is too bad, because having another motorcyclist on the force would maybe make enforcement of these new police state street racing laws a bit less of a scary prospect. I also got the chance to do a signed police statement - nothing about the accident as it happened, but all that transpired afterwards.
On the kind of cool side, apparently both the police and paramedics were very happy with the help and the statements that the other guy and myself provided.
I was almost stranded there for the night though. I'd left my jacket, gloves and helmet beside the accident scene. Which became a crime scene. Which meant removing them was disturbing the crime scene. Fortunately, I was allowed to take my gear and go home, as my stuff obviously was something that came in after the fact.
I've been writing this over the course of the day now, I guess. This was still only happening within 24 hours but it feels like a very long time ago now. I feel like I don't want to lose any details, but at the same time I'd really rather not forget. Just writing things down and talking to people about what I saw seems to feel right, so I guess I'll just go with that. I realize now I'm fortunate that I came on to the accident scene when I did. I was able to help organize the scene and make the paramedic's life easier, but without having to witness someone's transition from living, breathing human to corpse.
I've seen in the news that they couldn't ID the guy. That has to be the worst way for friends and family to find out - piecing together a description on the news to a missing son or even father.
I'm not really sure of what else to be writing here now - just don't quite feel like going to bed, despite having work in the morning. Oh well - with time, all things will pass I suppose. Hope long weekends elsewhere were less eventful than mine.