Witnessed a Car Crash Today

[GHS]

Originally Posted by Rudals

OP here.
I did not see the driver on the phone.
He said he was trying to pull over because he was losing his vision.

I get migraines from time to time and get a bright white spot right smack in my vision but it develops slowly. I think we can rule out a migraine.

The dispatcher asked me if he was taking any medication but he said just extra strength tylenol...for what? I don't know.

What's funny is that the passenger walked right out of the car and was fine. Seat belt? Or maybe the point of impact was right in front of the driver?

Of course no one is going to say " I was on my cell phone and had a bit of brain fade so thats why I slammed into that large immovable object" Just call me cynical but its all around you if you drive enough that its becoming a national problem. I see cars all the time run red lights, stop signs, pass people on the right as they wait for pedestrians to cross the st. Its really out of control. Yes, accidents do happen...but Im betting more and more on the phone.

[Nyghthawk]

Tangential but in a similar vein.

Many years ago my wife was working in a vitamin/health food store. One of her regular customers was a man that had successfully completed chemo and was on the mend from what type of cancer I never knew. he was taking a nap one afternoon in his apartment on the first floor. the guy above him was tinkering with (he claimed cleaning) his .357. It discharged, passed through the floor, sub-floor, ceiling, and killed the man dead. Never mind you can't clean a revolver that is still loaded!

Each day is a blessing. None of this is guaranteed.

[Jambi]

Couple weeks back I was heading home, stop and go traffic toward a main road. Some kid and his girlfriend/sister/whatever were in a pickup, coming out of a store parking lot. Some guy behind me merged left into the turning lane (in that incredibly rude way some people do) to pass a bunch of other vehicles, even though it was far too early for him to do so. Myself and the driver in the next lane had stopped, so the kid could get out, and the guy smashed right into them, t-boning the pickup and sending glass in a wicked explosion I had front row view of.

Everyone was okay.

I totally had the same reaction, introspection. We are fragile creatures who take our brief glimmers of existence for granted far too often.

[architype]

About 20 years ago I was first on the scene of a serious accident. There were 2 fatalities, ( a 5 yr old and her mother), the driver sustained serious facial injuries and a broken leg.
No air bags, no one wearing seat belts. It was not something i wanted to to be thrust into, and i did the best i could to help, but the level of injuries was above my ability and knowledge. Fortunately the next person to arrive was a volunteer fireman with much more first aid training than me.
I think about that day sometimes when I see people taking chances out on the road and it reminds me of how life can change in an instant.

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[Pitar]

I used to salvage crashed airliners from wherever they decided to abide the laws of gravity. I'm pretty up on the fragile part.

With ground vehicular travel, people tend to strap on invincibility when they get behind the wheel and from there they lose all patience with their fellow man. Very bad combo. That said, I'd put roughly half the fatalities as earned.

I've witnessed many ground and aerial vehicle accidents. All were human error. One would think safety to be the common thread in all but diligence is not a captive, living component of the human psyche.

And, then, we have surfers sharing the waters with the ever-hungry shark so there's that.

In U.S. nationally regulated ground and aviation operations and maintenance we're constantly striving to remain alert to our shortcomings so we force ourselves to prop up safety. In the US we have laws prohibiting controlled substance and intoxicating beverage use in the work place, with sobriety criteria established to prevent coming to work intoxicated or medicated. Programs are in place that routinely perform random testing in the work force. Two failed tests, or one refusal to be tested, and a worker in barred for life from working in a safety sensitive position in the US regulated transportation industry. Those rules do not apply off-shore in other national authority regulations. Other nations consider that an invasion of privacy. Funny. Most other nations model their aviation regulatory requirements on the United States yet when it comes to sobriety those US regulations are dodged with great abandon and colorful rhetoric.

Okay. So, how many ground and air accidents are attributable to drug and alcohol misuse, and why are we struggling to get marijuana approved for recreational use?