Have you witnessed any fatal accident?

I have witnessed various accidents of various severity, but I haven’t known at the time that they were fatal – I’ve read about them in the paper or saw a story on TV and that’s how I learned people died.

In the three cases I can recall, these were all on the freeway (interstate). One guy lost control and drove at 50 mph into a bridge abutment. The other two were closer to my house – people speeding, ramming into another car and flipping the other car.

Did my life change? Not at all. I guess I was shaken immediately after seeing these, but then I drove on. These haven’t made an permanent change to my life or how I view things.

Now and again. But most of the time I could only see the aftermath and I couldn’t see the bodies, they were either taken away or covered by too many annoyingly curious people. The only way I knew they were fatal was the excessive blood.

The most heart-breaking accident was the one involving a child and a truck. I could see a badly damage motorbike, lots of blood, and a truck. No one was inside the truck and the victims were gone. But I could see some kind of toy on the ground. My guess was that a lady was riding with a child and they were making a turn when suddenly the truck came crashing on them. It’s just sad thinking about how much injury the child had to take.

And the only accident that I happened to witness from the start was a long time ago, when I was a child. I was going with my famuly on the road. The road was completely deserted. There was a man riding along with us, and he seemed to be very disoriented and it didn’t look like he was in a good shape to move in the street. Suddenly a truck passed him. Part of his motorbike got stuck into the truck and it carried him to some distance before he fell down. He didn’t even move. We quickly went away from the scene, and I wondered if he could survived the accident.

Actually seeing it no, but have come on scene seconds after as for changing my like life maybe I wonder if people will change their driving habits and not drive like drug crazed idiots by so far that hasn’t happened.

I was on the way home about 2AM on the Ravanel bridge. There weren’t any other cars in my lane. In the oncoming lanes I saw two pairs of headlights approaching faster than normal. Almost exactly as they passed me,one spun out and shot sparks everywhere before hitting the side and exploding in a big white fireball.

The other car kept going. I stopped, called for EMS threw out some glowsticks .

The car was completely engulfed in bright orange flames. I couldn’t get within 10 yards of it it was so hot. I assumed /hoped the driver died on impact. I never heard screaming or I might have tried harder. It was pretty obvious to me , nobody could have survived it.

Turns out those two cars had been racing when one lost control. They were both bartenders who had just got off work.

I was coming home that night from a 12 hour shift at the emergency veterinarian hospital I worked at. So I was still in “emergency ” mode. The situation didn’t affect me in the slightest. I didn’t think cars blew up like that anymore though. It literally exploded when it hit the concrete wall. I guess it hit just right?

I mean, I never saw the guy, just a car blow up and burn. So it wasn’t graphic. Although I was aware there was probably at least one person inside.

Crazy shit happens at night. I still see wild stuff all the time going home late at night.

I passed an accident where a motorcycle was on its side and the motorcyclists legs were sticking up in the air from behind the front tire of a car with a crumpled front.

I rode motorcycles in my teens and twenties, and they really are super fun, but I don’t want one anymore.

I witnessed a suicide.

I was at a concert at an old winery in Saratoga CA. The building that houses the stage and backstage areas is built into a hill, and the roof was accessible from the rear. Towards the end of the show, a young man jumped to his death from the roof onto the stage. Died instantly.

Haven’t been back to that venue since.

Oh God.

I was working at a daycare, and it was my breaktime. I was on a coffee run. Normally I’d have taken the time to walk across the street to 7–11, but everyone wanted coffee so I took my car.

Now, I was 19, and like most 19 year olds I never moved my car more than 5 feet without my favourite music playing, so I’m sitting at a red light fiddling with the CD player, when I hear a sound that I can only describe as someone stepping on a soda can, but amplified. I look up, and this gravel truck is airborne. It leaves behind a pile of gravel, flipped ass over teakettle, and spun out into the intersection, stopping about 5 feet in front of the grill of my car. My car was showered with rocks. I looked up, and noticed I had the green light. For how long I’m not sure.

I just pulled out my phone and called 911, told them what I saw. They asked if there was another car involved. I said I didn’t see one but it sounded like one had been hit.

I sat there stunned long enough for fire rescue to show up, and they immediately grabbed shovels and started digging into the pile of gravel. A couple of guys got out of the gravel truck and just walked around in what I guess was shock. I pulled around the block and back to work and told everyone I couldn’t get them coffee, and then went and hugged babies for the rest of the day and cried a lot.

They were fine, but the owner of the truck died. I had panic attacks while driving for years afterward. I still get nervous around big trucks on the road.

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How terrifying.

It happened in 1973 in Moscow, Idaho. I was traveling along a road when a car pulled out some distance in front of me. His view of the road to his left was obscured by a vehicle parked on the corner. Another car coming in the opposite direction hit him broadside at about 60 MPH, killing him instantly. His wife, sitting next to him did not appear to have any injuries. The car spun crazily across the road, it’s horn stuck on, blaring. The victims door was hanging off the other vehicle.
I cam across another accident a couple years later on the freeway between Boise, Idaho and Mountain Home, Idaho. There was a car on it’s roof in the median, seatbelts hanging down. The cars contents were strewn all over the place! We stopped and took it all in, not knowing of the occupants fatality. As I walked along, observing the debris, I came across a blanket with a hand sticking out from under. An 18 year old girl who had just graduated from high school. That ended my sight-seeing excursion!
How was I affected? Not so much, really. I had attended my grandfather’s funeral in 1972 and a grandmother’s in 1969.
Death happens! Everyday to everyone.

Here’s one I almost forgot…
I was working at a gas station in Las Vegas in late 1973, during the gas embargo. I had just come to work and was preparing to start my graveyard shift.
The guy I was relieving, as well as myself, heard a strange noise but didn’t see anything. Then some guy runs in and tells us to call an ambulance because so guy had been hit by a car. My co-worker, a returnee from Viet Nam, ran to see if he could do something while I got on the phone. While I was talking, the co-worker returned: “Tell them not to hurry. He’s dead.”
Some car (like a Lincoln or Cadillac) had left the busy street, hit this guy who had just finished dinner at the restaurant next door, knocked him 50 feet through the air, hit a store sign, and fell between two cars. A hit and run. I didn’t see the body. Didn’t want to.

Here’s another I forgot. This one was in Denver in 1975’
My room mate and I were relaxing in our 3rd floor apartment when we heard a thud/crash, then frantic screaming. We went out to the window to see what was what on the street below.
A woman driving a VW Beetle had collided with another car on the street. Her young daughter had been standing up in the front seat, like children used to do.
The child had been thrown through the windshield and her mother’s car had run over her. When the mother opened the car door, there was her beautiful daughter.

That’s so bad..

I’ve seen plenty of recent wreckage. I don’t remember seeing an actual death occur. I did see a car zoom by the wrong direction on the freeway, and learn later that they had died less than a mile later, behind me.

I have seen animals get killed by cars, and may even have been in the car when it happened once (probably – we couldn’t find the animal).

Being involved even in non-fatal accidents tends to have me re-think wanting to drive.