please read and learn

AMEN to that!

 

I feel your pain. As a driver, many of us see death and the reality of what can happen on the road sinks in. I'm glad you attempted assistance and did the right thing. You did what you could and it probably will make you just that much a better driver. I hope no family member comes across this thread. It might be too much. I'm just sayin.

 

I have been to several of these.

One a firemen was injured severly and we witnessed it. It was a hard thing to deal with it.

In the EMS, the first was when I was called to a baby not breathing.

First ever sids call and doing cpr on a 3 month old with the mother screaming in my ears for 14 minutes for the ambulance.

Another was when a 4 year old was struck while in the proper seat on a curve and no marks on him. I will not post on an open forum what I saw though.

First on scene to this accident with 9 patients in total.

Triage and nothing I could do and mother screaming to get me to help her child. They put the crosses there and I have to see them every time I come home and go through it each time.


You may feel these are not needed, but I tend to have seen where they are.

I have quite a background dealing with this and sometimes they seem impractical. It helps the what if's.

 

Gravedig. I feel your pain as I've driven by several severe crashes that didnt turn out well.

 

gravdigr, I'll have to say, your user name had a certain irony when I read your post.
Having lost a family member in a truck accident 10 years ago, I have experienced the pain and shock first-hand of this. And I have come to realize...that time only heals some wounds. Thank you for your thoughts on this.

 

I subconsciously removed my hat reading this, this is indeed a powerfull tale, and as a brand new rookie starting out i pray to god i never see this and if i do, i hope i can help save peoples lives. I always get so mad, you watch a youtube vid of an accident and surrounding traffic just keeps going... blows my mind every time.
My best friend killed a young women with his landscaping truck, in the country on a road with right of way, this lady somehow didnt see him sitting at her stop sign pulled out right in front of him no way to avoid it t-boned right in the drivers door. He was and is in some ways still pretty messed up from the ordeal, took emergency services 20 min to get there, she died 10 min after the collision, she managed to get off a few goodbye's that he then took to her family, and i think thats what did the worst damage to him mentally. you watch something like that in the movies and its all hogwash. what it does to you.. i can only imagine

 

Gravdigger on your other thread you posted the related news story about these two accidents. The father in the van who was dead at the scene then an 11 year old son also pronounced dead at the scene. The 18 year old female in the back seat was transported to the hospital by lifeflight heli with non-life threatening injuries. So it apparently was the driver's older daughter that survived.

Aside from the grief she is going through it should bring a smile to your face that she has survived. She is a young 18 year old who will have the next couple years pretty rough emotionally, but soon she will be married and starting a family of her own. It may sound cold but I think that is better than a 45 year old widow who lost her husband and son on the same day. I know a loss is still a loss but at least some happiness lies in this girl's future yet. :/

 

This type of incident is exactly what most of us try to avoid when we're coming up on stopped traffic. My company's trailers have an extra set of turn signals/flashers at the top corners in the back. So even after a few 4 wheelers are backed up behind me, I leave my flashers on until there's another tall vehicle behind me blocking the view of those top marker lights flashing.

But that's all we can do. The rest depends on whether the approaching traffic behind us is paying attention.

 

Sorry you had to experience that. The only thing I've seen was the aftermath of a tractor/trailer exploding after rolling down an embankment. Nothing but blackened bits left and I don't know if the driver made it out or not.

I was involved in a minor accident in Washington state back in the late 90's. An ex was driving in the snow/ice, lost control, slid and jacknifed on a bridge. We were told by EMT, firefighters & police that if we'd started our slide 5 feet sooner we'd have ended up in the freezing river below that bridge. Tractor ended up on its side but the trailer stayed upright. I couldn't go near an 18 wheeler for years after. Yet I ended up being a truck driver (overcoming my fear) to get away from that same guy that caused the accident (abuser).

FYI - I don't think it's 12' long but rather 12". Just my observations.

Also, PTSD and ADD/ADHD are very real. They are problems connected with the brain and various neurotransmitters, neurons, etc. Children and adult alike have both disorders. You ever see a child be so abused yet still trust everyone but also be able to snap (get angry quickly) or become depressed at the drop of a hat? It's due to memories and the stress those memories (and actions) have caused them. Much therapy is needed to get past the terrible actions or memories that others have caused. Sometimes medication is needed. I have a 9 year old who was abused from birth til 6 (when he was taken from bioparents). They burned him, held a gun to his head, cut him, beat him, starved him, choked him, etc. Yet this boy only wanted 1 simple thing - a family to love him! He gave his all to whoever he was with BUT he still got angry or depressed if he let the past or things that reminded him of the past get to him (this is part of PTSD). The ADD actually helped him forget some stuff thank God. Almost 2 years worth of therapy and myself & my husband had to help him with the rest.

Hope you feel better about what you saw and I hope it doesn't leave any long lasting impressions or nightmares. Just pray for the families and pray that you can put it behind you and enjoy your life to its fullest.

 

An observation I made reading this guys post, kind of unrelated, and has nothing to do with this crash, but, why does this driver HAVE A TRAINER THAT IS IN THE BUNK SLEEPING? If he drives and the trainer takes his ten, the the trainer drives and he takes his ten, doesn't that sound like a team operation? Why do you call him a trainer if you are team driving?

Sorry to go off topic. To the OP, I can only imagine what that was like, and I would not want to have been there. I worry about getting rear ended all the time, as people do not pay attention, and are very unaware of what is going on right around them. Be careful everyone.