tim292stro
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That reminds me of an anecdote... and another caution.
About a year into dating my now wife, we were driving through a canyon at a few past midnight and came upon an accident. Single vehicle into a tree on the outside of a sharp downhill turn. Apparently the guy driving had JUST BOUGHT a new Honda Civic and was racing his friend through the canyon to show off (Error #1). He was overconfident (Error #2) in the handling of a full (5 passengers, arguably Error #3, but I'll let that slide) front wheel drive vehicle when under heavy acceleration, while driving a road he had never been on (Error #3). When he got into trouble by putting too much input into the front axle (power+hard steering - resulted in sliding, Error #4), he tried to turn harder and power out of it (Error #5). He hit the tree offset frontal on the passenger side, spinning the car back into the road. The front passenger got the brunt of the brand new passenger air bag, and was having trouble breathing.
Right about this time my girlfriend and I came around the corner in my truck and noticed a car at a 45° to the lane, stopped, and lots of gravel on the road. Slowly we drove up and as the headlights from the wrecked car stopped blinding us we saw the damage. They asked if we had a cell phone, I said yes - but upon pulling it out I noticed "no signal". I told them this and they looked $#!+ scared, so I said "give me a minute" and pulled over. I knew in this canyon that there was a driveway about 20 feet to the right of the crash (the tree he hit was at the end of the driveway, yes tree lovers, it survived and lives to this day). As I was getting out of my truck, I overheard "Okay, get him to a hospital" and heard the clunk of doors closing on the other car. I took a quick hike up the hill to see if I could reach the cell tower over the next valley (which I barely did). Dialed 911, told them the road, the mile post marker, the address for the mail box at the bottom of the driveway and the condition of the car at the bottom of the hill, and the injury. The operator said she was going to dispatch fire and CHP (CHP is California's state police - this was a deep inter city canyon, county jurisdiction, but CHP can lend a hand anywhere). I asked the dispatcher if I could go down and attempt to render aid to the injured, and she released me to do so under the expectation/knowledge that once I left the hill-top I would be unreachable by phone.
When I got down hill, that was when the surprise hit. There was my truck parked 15 feet off the edge of the road with my girlfriend in it, and a wrecked dark-blue Civic WITH NO LIGHTS ON blocking the lane. None of the original parties from either car remained on the scene, and I didn't even have so much as a name of any of the people involved or even a headcount of how many people were there...
At the time I was a Loss Prevention Officer for an electronics retailer, so I should have known better!!! Basically they dumped the accident scene on me without my knowledge. Sure I could have hopped in the truck and took off like a jerk, but that's not me, that's not right - and let's be honest I already called it in so I wouldn't take a genius to figure out I was there...
So some quick an dirty points on marking the scene of an accident:
They left the door unlocked fortunately, so I pushed the hazard lights button and turned on the parking lights of the wrecked car. I backed my truck up about 70 feet from the wreck, pointed my high-beams at it put the parking brake on and left the engine running with the girlfriend in it. Got out my 30 minute flares (not the normal 15 minute ones the hardware store normally has), went uphill to about 250 feet from the wreck where there was a curve and put 2 flares (one lit) in the center of the lane dots - this keeps the flares from rolling (important as it was a high fire danger year). I repeated this every 50 feet until 50 feet from the wreck. I felt comfortable that the blocked lane now had some advanced warning and went and did the unblocked approach (where I came from) to give a bit of warning that something was happening ahead people needed to be careful with. Then I had to hike back up the hill and re-dial 911 to let them know the current situation had changed, my girlfriend followed me up the hill a ways with my one flashlight (we sure as **** weren't going to take on the LIABILITY of directing traffic). I happened to get the same operator as I had the first time, and she shared my exasperation at the wreck's driver and passengers for leaving (a crime). She said she'd call the local hospitals and update the units moving to me, thanked me and advised me return to my truck.
About the time I was thanking the dispatcher, I turned down the hill to a running girlfriend, wildly swinging my flashlight side to side - just as I was thinking "Gee, it looks like she's trying to flag someone down" I saw a CHP cruiser nearly run her over - I was just close enough to see the shock in the face of the driver and passenger officers...
In her excitement she forgot about her own safety, and very nearly paid the price for it. When I got down the hill I first scolded my girlfriend a bit for forgetting that she was essentially running into traffic, and with an agreeing nod from both of the nice CHP officers who were first to arrive on scene, I tucked her back into the safety on my pickup truck while one officer questioned me off to the side up the hill a bit (well out of any harm's way). The other officer was grabbing a few more flares to bulk up the roughly 1-hour run I had set on the road, and radioed in their status. I gave my statement and the CHP officers released us from the scene - then they told me the dispatcher had found the people who left the scene at a local hospital, and that the injury was at best superficial (the airbag only knocked the wind out of the front passenger and broke his nose, no-one else had a scratch). We all had a good moment to shake our heads at that news, then the CHP officers helped get us back on the road and waved us on.
I did a few things wrong that night myself:
- I didn't take ANY notes (mental or otherwise) about what was happening, this made me a terrible witness. Absolutely useless - couldn't even remember what nationality the guy was I talked to about my cell phone.
- I now use a dash cam, and am expanding it to five external cameras, plus two internal
- I didn't get any information about the people I was calling in to 911 for, and in reality one of them should have accompanied me up the hill for the call to talk to the operator.
- My wife was a little embarrassed at her excitement but otherwise lived (after years of putting up with me I had to marry her
), but we should have had a plan of where we were going to be and what we should have specifically been doing. CHP were dispatched because of my first call, there was no need to flag them down - it also could have caused a wreck if there was no room for the CHP officer to maneuver, I credit the officer's training in looking out for stuff like that for not hitting her (Thanks, never got his name). - I was wearing dark/comfortable clothes as is my custom - didn't make me very visible out there at 12:30 at night.
- I now carry a high visibility yellow jacket in my truck, it's great as a rain coat and you can see it clearly day and night, I got my wife the orange version for her truck since she thought it made her "look like a cone".
- I only had one flashlight
- I now carry 2, plus 4x 15" green 8-hour glow sticks, and 8x 6" ultra-orange 5-minute sticks we can clip to the back of ourselves.
- I really wasn't carrying enough flares, even though I was carrying a LOT of flares - I set 16 just that night.
- I now carry 25, and order them by the case. I also carry two cases of 10" 2-hour red glow sticks as flare replacements.
- I had no comms.
- I now have two whip antennas with a cell amplifier, I have yet to find a place that I can't get a cell signal within 20 miles of normal service, my new trucks will have the same but improved capabilities
- When traveling in areas where cell coverage is unlikely, I carry a Personal Locator Beacon, help is just clear sky and a button push away.
- I now have two whip antennas with a cell amplifier, I have yet to find a place that I can't get a cell signal within 20 miles of normal service, my new trucks will have the same but improved capabilities
If something happens or you come upon something that has happened, you have to think your safety first, then the safety of those immediately around you, then the safety of those who come upon you - THEN you can start to deal with the individual problems.
Lastly keep yourself and those around you cool headed, think through your situation (worst case is usually the way to go), and:
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