Saw something

[76ChevyTrucker]

I know that I'm normally not one to go and post things that would likely turn someone's stomach, but I've got to say this one. On the drive home this afternoon I was witness to an accident. This was a pretty bad one, Peterbilt 379 vs new Mustang. I've had basic first-responder training, and it happened about 30 seconds before I really arrived on scene but it was still bad. Looks like the Mustang ran the light, or was the last car in the line to turn and thought she could make it, but either way you slice it, 80,000-lb Pete doing 55mph through the green broadside into a new 'stang isn't going to be just a fender patch and move on. The truck driver was pretty badly frazzled nerves-wise, so I kinda left him alone. The problem came when the Mustang caught fire. The woman driving was trapped inside, all I could really do was talk to her and try to keep her calm and from going into shock. While others called for help I did my best to find a way into the car. Needless to say you guys can imagine what happened....car on fire, occupant trapped inside, EMS and fire at least 10 minutes away and the fire extinguisher in the Pete didn't do a damned bit of good.

I've never seen something like that happen before and I don't think I'd ever want to see something like that again. Y'all, I've normally got a rock-solid stomach, but when this was all over, I had to go over to the side of the road and just hurl.....it was pretty gruesome. And I don't really blame myself, there was nothing I could do, I couldn't get into the car, and I didn't have anything to put the fire out...but I just feel like I could have done something more...

[Camino LS6]

Damn.

[76ChevyTrucker]

Camino, I have to say that its one of those things that kidna makes you twitch (in all the wrong ways) when you even think about it.

[Camino LS6]

Camino, I have to say that its one of those things that kidna makes you twitch (in all the wrong ways) when you even think about it.

The description was enough for me... I can only imagine what the reality must have been like.

[76ChevyTrucker]

A good bit worse than my description. Glass popping, screaming, flames growing. No special effects department could touch this one.....it was just bad

[Camino LS6]

Don't keep that in your head too long.

[76ChevyTrucker]

That would be why my music selection for tonight is 99.99% comedy stuff. I've gotta get something light-hearted through me.

[makfu]

A good bit worse than my description. Glass popping, screaming, flames growing. No special effects department could touch this one.....it was just bad

That is incredibly awful. I know what you are talking about vis-à-vis your reaction.

I witnessed a bizarre and horrible accident in 1992 when a Cessna 140 attempted (what I assume) was an emergency crash landing on US Route 202 in Montebello, New York. The plane had been buzzing (in major violation of FAA rules) the parents house of the two pilots in the plane (who were brothers) when it suffered mechanical failure. It came down hard on 202 after catching several branches and a major power line. I was mowing my brothers lawn when it came down about 30 feet from me, right in front of the house.

It took me about 20 seconds to make the decision to approach the plane, as the power line was down and bouncing about 15 feet from the plane which was now leaking fuel. I have to say that I also feel I hesitated because I really didn't want to see what was inside the plane. I had completed basic EMT (EMS) training about 3 months earlier down in Jersey, but nothing prepared me for what I saw. I won’t describe it, for a lot of reasons, but what was a cabin about the size of a Taurus was now collapsed to 1/3 that size and, as a result, the worst body and head trauma I have ever seen people live through, to this day, had occurred. Both occupants were still alive, and one of them was, horrifyingly, still conscious. Another EMS (also about my age of 18), who lived up the street, came running down, I told him to prepare himself for what he was going to see and also be ready to pull back if the aviation fuel caught fire (luckily it didn't). I went and called 911, as we still had (I think) the only functioning phone on the street.

The worst part was as I was coming back out after calling 911, the father of the two people in the plane came running up the street screaming that his sons were in the plane. There wasn't much we could do for the occupants, except try to keep the conscious one calm and keep the father back from the plane. When police/fire/ambulance did arrive, I went back in the house, hurled and then collapsed, passed out cold. Both brothers did survive, but both were partially paralyzed and one suffered permanent brain damage if my memory serves me correctly.

I still get a pit in my stomach to this day.

[76ChevyTrucker]

Yeah, see, that's why RESPONSIBLE pilots don't do stupid stuff like that (I carried a valid Private Pilots Certificate until a couple of years ago). I dunno how long they'd been flying, but that was a more than boneheaded move there.

[makfu]

Yeah, see, that's why RESPONSIBLE pilots don't do stupid stuff like that (I carried a valid Private Pilots Certificate until a couple of years ago). I dunno how long they'd been flying, but that was a more than boneheaded move there.

Yeah, I obtained my PPC a number of years later and, in retrospect, they made many, many mistakes (we will just leave all of the flagrantly idiotic Class G airspace abuses that probably led to the mechanical failure). The biggest problem, among many, was the bone headed move of trying to bring the 140 down on a roadway. Given that they had a few fairly open spaces to work with, including a field that was only about a hundred feet away from where they came down, and based on my visual observation that they had lined up with the roadway (I watched them do it), they must have panicked and then committed to a course of action before thinking things through. There was a section of 202 that was fairly clear and straight about 1/4 mile up the road and I suspect they simply misjudged their decent rate and overshot the portion of the road they hoping to touch on. By that point, it was too late, since they didn't have enough airspeed (and, IIRC, their engine was out) to attempt any type of reconfiguration and recovery.

Everyone who has been through basic instruction knows you don't ever use a roadway because it is too difficult to see obstructions that you could foul on (telephone and power lines, branches) and that there is the potential to make bad situation worse due to traffic on the roadway. I don't know how long they had been flying, but as the saying goes, you never want to simultaneously run out of airspeed, altitude and ideas. They clearly managed to do all three.

[76ChevyTrucker]

Yeah, a field is damn near always your best bet. At east with a lot of them you can fairly easily judge what kind of condition it is in from the air and not worry about the small stuff. Besides, their first reaction should have been to set the thing up for best glide. Oh well I guess, stupid is as stupid allows itself to be.

[A Horse With No Name]

I had a good friend who was a railroad engeneer who hit a woman in a volkswagen with a frieght train and killed her at a crossing. Not his fault but twenty years later he still had nightmares.

I still have a problem with car fires because I saw a Formula Ford burn During an SCCA race, although the driver did make it out...

Chris

[daves87rs]

Wow.

Words can't say what...I want to say.That is bad. I'm not even sure if I could handle that.

Just don't dwell on it...hopefully You will see something that will brighten your weekend.

It does want to make you go home and give the family a big hug for a while...

[76ChevyTrucker]

I'm going to do my best to put this one behind me althoug I still woke up in the middle of the night last night in a cold sweat and apparently I'd been screaming and crying in my sleep.

[Z-06]

Brave it out buddy. Think of your daughter and how she makes your day while you bathe her.

[76ChevyTrucker]

You know what, that is something fun to think about. Or her walking around and getting into everything, or her wanting to....for some unknown reason, gnaw on my fingers when she's holding onto one of them.

[knightfan26917]

That would be why my music selection for tonight is 99.99% comedy stuff. I've gotta get something light-hearted through me.

*nods*

Good idea....

Very sorry you had to witness that .

Cort:34swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve&pacemaker

CDshowcase=www.WRMN1410.com*SATURDAY.january26*2p-5p.and.8p-11p.CENTRAL

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot where I was" ... Patty Loveless ... 'I Try To Think About Elvis'

[76ChevyTrucker]

I'm sorry I did too, even more sorry that I couldn't get the lady out.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

My dad was a fire chief for 20 years...

I've heard and seen some of the stuff he's dealt with.

Somehow I could always tell if it was something really bad.

We had this one wreck; happened early in the morning. 2 college kids (BF & GF) were going home traveling east bound on the interstate in their Jeep Cherokee. An 18 wheeler was traveling west bound and the driver fell asleep causing the truck (going 70-80 MPH) to cross the median and hit the couple head on. The 18 wheeler never even hit the brakes and it was really foggy (we're in the mountains) so the kids never saw it coming, thus couldn't react. Dad said it was like a bomb went off and it was probably the most upset he had been in a long time. The 18 wheeler went through the Jeep and ended up hundreds of yards off the interstate in the woods. Subsequently, we now have guardrails up both sides of the median on every major NC interstate now.

Edited January 25, 2008 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[76ChevyTrucker]

yeah, I think there were/are too many cross-over type accidents on the Interstates here in Bama which is why you either have a WIDE, tree covered median, or you've got the 6-ft tall concrete barrier separating the lanes.

[K.C.]

I'm sorry you had to go through something so horrific and tragic. I was in a horrible car accident the same day. I do not know who the first person on the scene of my accident was, but to me, all people who do what you do are heroes.

Cheers to you!