Based on thread below - Have you ever seen a fatal accident!

[eyeoreismyhero]

I saw one when I was 12 years old and it has stuck with me all these years.

Me and younger bro out in front yard playing (this is the late 80's) and we hear screeching tires and see a pickup truck with a bed full of people spin sideways and turn over crushing two of the folks in the bed. It's a scene I'll never forget.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

I've seen a few, and when I was doing my EMT training I ran a call on one. Not fun.

 

[binny]

yes

 

[vivilasvegas]

When I was around 10, on the Fourth of July, I saw a motorcycle accident. The lady riding in back flew up in the air and landed on her head. She died, but the driver lived. It was horrible seeing the whole thing...

 

[Robinrs]

Yes, and like you said, you never forget it.

 

[AZKathy]

Around 25 years ago, I was a new RN and a bunch of us from the OR went innertubing down a river. There were lots of RN's and docs having a great day.

On the long drive home, we saw a car literaly flip off the two lane road in front of us; it side swiped an RV on the side of the road. We were out in the middle of nowhere and this was before cell phones. We stopped to render aid, but we had nothing to help the people in the car and basically saw two die before any parametics arrived from Phoenix. It was a horrible experience having the knowledge to help, but nothing with us to help these poor people. It bothered me for many years.

 

[KelNottAt]

I didn't witness the accident, but I was one of the first to come upon the scene. The victim was a 16 yo girl, local HS soccer star. People around here have memorial stickers on cars in her honor.

Thank heaven I was alone. If the kids had been with me...well, I can't bear to think about it...

 

[pixiemomma]

Yes a car flipped and caught on fire about three hundred feet in front of us. A very brave gentleman (and passing motorist) saved the lives of two children by pulling them out of the car but was unable to get their mother out. I've probably seen others but this one will always stick with me particularly since the children recovered in hospital beds next to my cousin who was also badly injured in an auto accident that killed his mother.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Yes, and yes it still haunts me.

I was teaching at a California University and driving through the faculty parking lot, when an eighteen year old student was holding on to the back of a moving pick-up while on his skateboard. He hit something and flipped, landing on the back of his head on the parking lot asphalt. I didn't see him fall off, but I was the first to come upon the scene in my car when he was on the ground, and the driver had run out and was holding his head. Moments later, police and the emergency team arrived and I left to get out of their way. I was very, very concerned and was devastated to hear that he'd died in route while being airlifted to the hospital. People put flowers around the spot where he'd fallen, and I had students miss class because they'd known him. I'll never forget how much I worried about his parents. Can you even imagine the horror? It all seemed so senseless.

 

[Chicago526]

I've never seen the actual accident, but have driven by a few where you just know someone didn't make it out. Once there was even a covered body still on the pavement. We later found out it was an older man trying to cross the street, he had tried to cross in front of an oncomming bus, and he had enough time to beat it, but the bus blocked his view of the left lane, and a car was passing the bus and didn't see the guy until it was too late. No one's fault, really, but I'm sure the driver must have just felt horrible.

Fortunatly, all the accidents I've witnessed have been more or less minor.

 

[PrincessaC]

I have never seen one..but I use to work for an auto insurance company (claims) and have taken a few fatal ones where I had to get the description of what happened by the driver or witness...very hard..

It was very hard to listen when you have a crying mother giving the details of what happened.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Yes. I didn't see it happen but was the first one there. An 18 month old was not in a car seat. I held her still and stabilized her neck until the paramedics arrived. We live in a rural area. It seemed like it took hours for them to get there. The baby survived but her mother didn't. I am CPR trained and did not even think to try it on the mom who was pregnant. That still bothers me all these years later that I didn't try to save her.

 

[kilee]

We were in the middle of a high speed police chase a few years ago. We pulled off the side of the road as the chase was coming towards us. The stolen vehicle (SUV) being chased blew his front tires and came right over the top of our cars hood. He had caught air because a pick up truck in the lane outside of us hadn't seen/heard the oncoming chase and was trying to get out of the way- when the stolen SUV hit the bed of the truck and went massively airborne. Literally over the top of our car-- we had debris all over the hood and top of our car. He jumped the ditch on the other side of us as well and hit a tree. The driver was instantly killed.
The only thing I can say was if it hadn't been for that pick-up truck I don't know if my ds and I would still be here. The SUV most likely wouldn't of went airborne and would of probably crashed the drivers side of my car(where I was sitting and my then 8 yr old son was sitting directly behind me). According to the police- the driver was going 110 mph's. The people in the truck has some minor injuries, but thankfully the bed of the truck was empty and took most of the impact.
For a really long time afterwards I was terrified to really go anywhere. It wasn't so much the man that was killed (I was actually angry at him for what almost happened to my son and I)-- it was more of what actually happened. I still remember the entire thing very vividly, it took them almost 3 hrs to extract the deceased driver from the vehicle.

 

[Sylvester McBean]

I was playing in a little league game about 10 or 11 at a field near a highway. a semi jacknifed and two people in a convertible went underneath it, double decapitation. not a good thing for 30 grade school kids to see. it's still as plain as day in my memory.

 

[hucifer]

I was playing in a little league game about 10 or 11 at a field near a highway. a semi jacknifed and two people in a convertible went underneath it, double decapitation. not a good thing for 30 grade school kids to see. it's still as plain as day in my memory.

I couldn't imagine anything being much more horrific to witness than that.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

When I was in HS a group of us were headed to the beach in 2 cars-yes we were driving to fast no excuse there-the lead car was way ahead of us and went around a curve too fast when we came around the curve the accident had already happened---the car had skidded on the wet pavement crashed sidways into a telephone pole shearing it almost in half--the back part stayed at the pole and the front half crashed into the house---we all jumped out of our car and started running across the lawn to the car my friend tripped and fell and was covered in blood and started screaming-neighbors were coming out of the houses and everyone was trying to get the pp out of the car--out of the 5 in the car 3 died right there---when the fire dept arrived and had the lights we realized my friend had tripped over the head of the passenger which had been taken off when the car hit the pole and cut in two--the front passenger,driver and right backseat passenger all died---middle and left back passenger survived w/only minor injuries,broken leg & arm,concusions,abrasions but one has since been in and out of mental hospitals due to his inability to cope w/the accident---It took me a long time to come to grips w/that night and now almost 17yrs later it is difficult to drive down that stretch of road.

 

[highland3]

I'm in law enforcement and I've sadly been at a few fatal crashes. I can honestly say tat no matter how rough and tough a person is, the death of a child in a traffic collision is devasstating.

 

[anewvance]

Two of my most recent ones....

On the way up to Orlando a few months ago, it was really quiet on the Turnpike. We were going North and then going South we saw a semi and a little convertible collide... the driver of the convertible was definately deceased. We couldn't stop because it was just my sister and I and all 5 of our kids and we were on the wrong side of the road. But it's something i'll never forget, the way that guy looked all tangled in there. Saw it on the news in Orlando that night, even though we were still 60 miles away... there was no help for him at all.

Recently I came upon an accident. It was a pickup vs and motorcycle. I saw a man laying on the road, they had a blue tarp they were getting ready to place over him but were still taking accident scene photos. Later on the news I saw it was one of the most respected motorcycle cops in the county, he started a number of programs for troubled youths. He wasn't on duty, was riding his personal cycle. I will NEVER forget this guy, he was right outside my window. Even though I didn't know him I was really affected by his death.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I haven't, but recently my DD and my DH were driving home from some evening errands and come upon a fatal pedestrian accident soon after it happened. Someone had just covered the body, thankfully so my 18yo DD didn't have to see that. She could see enough to have a vivid reminder to drive carefully, but seeing the body would have given her nightmares. We never found out the details on the accident.

 

[DemonLlama]

This happened within 2 seconds, but the memory of it is in slow motion.

I had changed out of the fast lane as I saw brake lights coming at the top of an overpass.

Some car had stalled IN the fast lane. (Never figured out how that had happened.) Those people had gotten out of their car. The SUV in front of me putting on the brake lights was skidding hard to stop without hitting it and coming up over the hill behind him, an 18 wheeler who had no chance in heck of stopping. He slammed the brakes, hit the stopped SUV, which got rammed into the stalled car, and the SUV burst into flames. There were no survivors in the SUV.

We had been on our way to my parents for the weekend and I remember no being able to drive back home, I was so freaked out about even being in the car.