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Well, I'm pretty sure I just saw someone die.Follow

#1 Apr 16 2006 at 5:20 PM Rating: Good
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I just got back from driving home from the parent's easter brunch. I was in the left turn pocket at an intersection on Mill plain blvd in vancouver, turning onto mill plain. in the left turn pocket on my left, on mill plain itself there was a large red fire truck, fully stopped, waiting to turn. I'm about half way through my turn when I hear <Bam-Crunch> and this little 80's honda slamms into the back of the fire truck, going at least 30mph.

All of us turning stop, mid turn. It was a horrible sight. the passenger of the car was ok, but the driver, a women in her mid 30's? was slumped over the steering wheel, a whole heck of alot of blood on her head, no airbag, and the car windshield was pretty much entirely gone. To give you an idea of how hard she hit, the engine block itself was smashed pretty damn flat, the entire front end of the car was gone, and the front tires were sheared off the axles. She was not wearing a seat belt.

So i'm having a fairly wierded out day. But I'm alive and ok.
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#2 Apr 16 2006 at 5:28 PM Rating: Good
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Smiley: frown

#4 Apr 16 2006 at 5:33 PM Rating: Good
Chalk it up to darwinism.
#5 Apr 16 2006 at 5:59 PM Rating: Decent
Modern cars have collapsable fronts to absorb the energy of the collision and spread out the impulse over a longer time. However, if the car had no airbag...and she wasn't wearing a seatbelt...probably not good.

Good news is the fire department people were right there. Modern medicine is amazing, particularly if it arrives in time.
#6 Apr 16 2006 at 6:03 PM Rating: Good


A few years back I witnessed a really bad highway accident where a college student was killed. I only remember the ordeal in flashes, but one of the most prominent ones is cleaning shards of glass out of the girls hair who had died. I have no idea why I was doing it, it just seemed the thing to do.

Very surreal.

#7 Apr 16 2006 at 7:03 PM Rating: Good
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Craptastic, Kao.

I saw a woman jump out of a building once, while I was walking home from university. She leaned out of an apartment window in a high-rise and then, literally, splattered herself all over the pavement across the street from where I and a few other people were standing.

I was totally distraught after seeing that. I know how you feel. =(



Edited, Sun Apr 16 20:03:35 2006 by Tare
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#8 Apr 16 2006 at 7:40 PM Rating: Good
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Sorry to hear about your disturbance Kao.
while we're sharing campfire tales..

back in High School.. during late night play practice.. a bunch of us were messing around back stage.. A person comes in and jovially asks "wanna see an accident?".

Right out front of the school, a pickup truck was upside down , horn still blaring.. It had been side-swiped by a drunk driver.

We crowded aound. There was a girl dying on the street.. The bloodiest sight I've ever seen.. half of her face was not there.. we had to back up to avoid the river of thick blood that was rushing all over the street. Her boyfriend was standing and OK but in shock yelling to "Save my baby" and other such things before he collapsed.

We all knew the girl well.. we just didn't recognize her.. Next day in school people were leaving class early to cry or just for an excuse... but the few of us walked around knowing waht we had seen.... although not really something you can boast about...

yeah, it sucked.
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#10 Apr 16 2006 at 7:59 PM Rating: Decent
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Grats Kao!

You'll never get that feeling of the first time you watched someone die back so savor every moment.

#11 Apr 16 2006 at 8:03 PM Rating: Decent
I saw a man crushed under a pick up once. He was coming up to a red light and didn't stop in time. He swerved off the road and hit one of the guy wires they use to steady telephone poles, the ones that go from the ground to the pole. The truck rode up the wire high enough to get an arc off of one of the electrical lines.

When it came down it landed on the driver's side. The driver wasn't seraing a seat belt and had fallen halfway out of his window. He was trapped with his body under the lower part of his door and his feet under the steering wheel. He was bent at something like sixty degree angle sideways

The passenger was his grandson or nefew and was screaming his head off. He wanted people to move the truck but there was gas everywhere and you could still smell ozone. We were also afraid of hurting the guy more when we moved the truck. The kid was going insane, we couldn't get him to hold still long enough to see if he was okay.

We had to hold him down when he started rocking the truck on top of the guy.

I won't ever forget looking under the truck and seeing the back of the guys head and shoulders squeezed between the truck and the ground. The thing that shocked me the most was when I realized that it was summer and very, very dry so the dirt was likely as hard as concrete. The gap under the truck was less than a foot wide.

I never found out if the guy lived or died. I was one of the few who had a clear veiw of the accident so I was sitting ina police car giving a statement when they moved the truck. There was no way he was ever going to walk again, not with his spine at that angle and I don't see how he could have breathed with that truck on him.

That sucked, and there wasn't any blood or gore, just a guy under a truck. Don't blame you if you're a bit shaken up.

Edited, Sun Apr 16 21:07:20 2006 by fortnight
#12 Apr 16 2006 at 8:51 PM Rating: Good
I've seen a couple of people die and the moment itself is so uneventful that you can begin to understand how some people kill without remorse.

The dramatic events of a crash such as you described add far more emotional meaning to the event than when someone just stops breathing and doesn't start again no matter what you do.
#13 Apr 16 2006 at 8:58 PM Rating: Good
I guess I have been lucky, the few deaths I have witnessed first hand were all natural causes, and strangers. The was no blood, just they fell over and died before the parametics could get there.


Sorry to here about your experience Kao.
#14 Apr 16 2006 at 9:12 PM Rating: Decent
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Sorry to hear that, Kao. I don't think I've ever seen someone die, luckily.

One thing struck me though. She wasn't wearing a seatbelt, nor did her car have an airbag. I don't know why people refuse to wear seatbelts. There's a reason why they're there.

Excuses are kinda hard to come by when you're dead.
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#15 Apr 16 2006 at 9:46 PM Rating: Decent
TStephens wrote:
I've seen a couple of people die and the moment itself is so uneventful that you can begin to understand how some people kill without remorse.

The dramatic events of a crash such as you described add far more emotional meaning to the event than when someone just stops breathing and doesn't start again no matter what you do.


I agree. I've watched people die from natural causes or desieses, some of them family, it's much different from something like this. The trauma makes it stick with you, even if your bot directly effected by it.

I don't know if witnessing quiet deaths would let you kill without remorse though. That's something that's going to be tough to pin down. Too much trauma or too little associated with death or maybe something screwy with brain chemestry?




Edited, Sun Apr 16 22:55:06 2006 by fortnight
#16 Apr 16 2006 at 10:52 PM Rating: Good
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Just so you feel a bit better, Kao, she prolly was simply unconscious with a hefty concussion. While the car looked bad and her head was bleeding, you'd be amazed at how much damage both a vehicle and a body can sustain and still be relatively fine.

I'd lay a dollar to a donut that in week's time she'll be walking or wheeling herself around the hospital ward.

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#17 Apr 17 2006 at 12:35 AM Rating: Good
Well, I'm glad I took 164th home instead of Mill Plain. There was an accident there yesterday also. I only saw the aftermath of that one though.
#18 Apr 17 2006 at 12:44 AM Rating: Decent
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I actually just saw this accident on the PDX Fox49 news. Sounds like it was a woman and four children, and the only information about their condition was that they were critical.

I don't know how I would feel seeing someone die in an accident. I do know that my stepfather's death about a year and a half ago was gruesome. He was suffering pneumonia following chemotherapy for lung cancer, and had to be kept sedated that last few days of his life. The DNR was signed shortly after I arrived (had to fly from Portland to Michigan to say my good-byes) on Thursday. Late Friday night, they switched him over to a consistent morphine drip and realized his digestive tract had shut down so the food they were pumping in by the feeding tube wasn't going anywhere. And Saturday evening they turned off the respirator, and about a dozen of us in the family stood around that damned bed for a good ten minutes just watching him gasp his last breaths. It was hideous and ghoulish and I NEVER want to watch someone die that way again.

#19 Apr 17 2006 at 2:59 AM Rating: Decent
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I have only seen one person die, and it was a stranger.

I was at car wash, and behind it is a pawn shop, with a good sized parking lot. It was in the afternoon, almost dark. A kid was driving fast, with his music blaring, swerving and showing off. (there was a few people walkng near the pawn shop near the road).

Anyways, he lost control, and fish tailed. I was watching, waiting for him to correct and go forward. I assume he was either unskilled, or, he just decided to carry the donut he was in a few more times around just to show off.

He looped 2 or 3 times, then clipped a light pole hard with the rear quarter pannel of his car, hard. It was a older red ford Mustang, mid 80's style. The pole cracked, and fell half way across his car. There was a explosion, and a blue arc. Bad smell, and he just stayed where he was, with his head at a odd angle.

I did not approach, just called 911. Had to tell them what I saw for the report, an a hour later they said I could go home. Never knew that kid, but I would guess him at 16 mabey 17.

Was strange how the next day, the light pole was replaced, and other than black rubber marks in the street, you woud never know anything had happened there.... very sureal.

Makes me thankfull all the times I have showed off when I was young, I was lucky. Very lucky.
#20 Apr 17 2006 at 4:27 AM Rating: Excellent
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You gotta wonder how someone misses seeing a firetruck stopped in the lane in front of them, given that they're designed to be seen easily. But if you're going to hit something, that's not a bad choice really.

Worst death I've seen (even though I wasn't present for the actual death) was my Great Aunt. Alzheimers. 4 years of dying. Absolutely horrible way to die, both for the dying and those who have to watch the process. Watching someone lose who they are. Then watching them lose the ability to care for themselves (or even be cared for). Then watching them gradually waste away. You can't even say goodbye properly because the person you're saying it do isn't there anymore. Just a husk. Absolute worst thing. You'd beg for an accidental death after the first year or so.
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#21 Apr 17 2006 at 7:22 AM Rating: Good
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When I was twelve there was Police activity at a neighborhood beach, the one with all the signs that say no swimming, dangerous drop offs. So naturally me and some friends went to spectate. Someone had gone swimming and drowned. Actually 3 people, all teenagers, non locals who were fishing at the beach and apparently did not speak english. When I and other kids were standing on the beach two EMS techs ran into water fully clothed with the wheeled gurney, which was surreal enough, and then the divers placed the body of one of the kids on the gurney. They wheeled him out of the water right past me. I will never forget the expression on his face, trapped there when he died. It was a look of extreme horror, with his eyes and mouth wide open and both hands up near his face. And as they wheeled him away, a small crab crawled out of his mouth from the sea foam and water still in it. That is something I will never forget.

When I was thirteen I was riding in the first car of a subway train watching the tracks, with my mom and grandma going into manhattan. A guy was standing near the edge of the platform and I guess just fainted or commited suicide, he just leaned or fell straight forward right in front of the train. I was not allowed to go look under the train so I saw nothing gory, but the guy was killed. I remember vividly the scream of a lady a little further of the platform who saw the whole thing graphically. I have never heard a scream quite like that in the movies, nor a look like the one on the drowned kid in the movies either. Fake terror just does not compare to real life terror.

When I was older I saw an old man who was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident. It was sad, but by then my cherry was popped, I do not even remember what he looks like now.



Edited, Mon Apr 17 09:07:43 2006 by fhrugby
#22 Apr 17 2006 at 8:23 AM Rating: Good
Weirding out is a good reaction I suppose. I sort of wish death had a bigger impact on me again. Holding a guys hand while he slips away gives you sort of a jaded view of a lot of other things.
#23 Apr 17 2006 at 8:48 AM Rating: Decent
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I have the fortune I guess you could say of coming across accidents about 10 or 15 minutes after they happen.

Was riding home with my parents about 10 years ago when we came to a wreck at an intersection, saw a sheet on the ground with blood saturating it.

Was heading home last week when traffic slowed, looked to my left and in a parking lot was about 100 pieces of a motorcycle and a smashed up car, found out later that all 3 people involved in the wreck had died.
#24 Apr 17 2006 at 9:00 AM Rating: Good
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the only time I saw someone in such a serious accident they had a good chance of dying was my first time in NYC. I dont know if they died or not because my husband refused to stop. We were on the highway driving into the city borders when a car veered from the right lane into the left without looking. It's rear end swiped the car that was rightfully there, causing it to spin. The car behind them slammed on its brakes, but had too much momentum and somehoe ended up airborne, rolling. It landed halfway onto the barrier that seperates incoming traffic, upside down. I wanted to stop and see what help I could offer, but my husband refused, pointing out that others had already gone to help ( which was true but doesnt make me any less upset). It colored my view of NYC since then. Im not fond of the city.
#25 Apr 17 2006 at 9:11 AM Rating: Decent
Well my sister forsore someones death, thats good enough. I really havent seen anyone get killed/seriously injured.
#26 Apr 17 2006 at 9:20 AM Rating: Good
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I wanted to stop and see what help I could offer, but my husband refused, pointing out that others had already gone to help ( which was true but doesnt make me any less upset).

Couple of years ago in MN, some kid pulled off the highway to help a lady change a tire. Car came by and smacked in to the car that was stopped, knocking it in to and on top of the kid who stopped to help, killing him. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be a nice guy.
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