Accident in front of my house

[ghostrunner]

Had a very bad fatal accident right outside my house last night. Just sort of writing this to log it somewhere.

Driver went slightly into our ditch, then the ditch across the road, and (I think) hit the driveway there and then flipped all the way to the next driveway. Thrown from the car and I think died as soon as she get ejected based on the shape she was in. Won't get into detail but it was pretty grotesque.

We heard her coming, and I had headphones in at the time so it was a bit weird. Sounded/looked like she had been going 70/80 or so if I had to guess. This is a residential area so you know when it's that loud.

She had a car full of stuff and the backseat still seemed full, though the car was also a bit compressed. Trunk got completely emptied. All that stuff was all over the street which made it really confusing trying to see if there was anyone else. I checked the car like 3 times just to be sure but also was in a bit of shock.

Wife called 911 and couldn't respond to questions, and I'd already been trying to figure out if the person was alive and so they put me on. I had to confirm she was dead, which I also won't go into in detail, but at some point it became visually obvious due to parts that were about and I think I kind of knew before that. Though she also made a noise which I think was just a bodily function.

Still keep thinking I didn't do as well as I should have. I think ideally I'd have been more aggressive in checking her out before it was obvious. The car was smoking or maybe just steaming, but maybe I walked up to that too many times than I should have. Finding myself more bothered by these thoughts than the scene itself.

She also took out a rabbit which was just laying dead on the first driveway she hit, but mostly intact. Not sure if maybe that's what caused it. Our road is slightly off from the other side. Not a straight intersection. So either way it's probably hard to speed down it without losing control. There was also a big Ziploc full of medication that was thrown clear.

Anyway, drive safe. Pay attention. Don't speed. Wear your seat belts.

[thrill]

Take care of yourself, ghost. Pretty traumatic and a lot to process when you're not prepared for it. I was in a fatal accident when a truck slammed into a geo metro three cars behind me at a stop light and someone in the back seat of the metro died. I remember when they took the body out telling myself that if I look at the body it might stick with me, but I didn't want to look away and ignore what I was experiencing/not process it in real time. It's a very strange experience to go from normal circumstances to blood and trauma without sort of steeling yourself mentally in advance.

I think you did really well. It can be a lot for a non-medical / law enforcement type person to run towards blood and gore.

[ghostrunner]

Want to reiterate the seatbelt thing and I'm sure most people do that. She'd have had a shot if she'd been wearing it. The car itself wasn't really that bad off, despite the compression and apparently flipping.

[heyzeus]

Ghost, I'm really sorry you had to witness and experience this. I know that can stick with you. In my opinion, you did everything you could, and everything you should have done in that situation. You may never get to know what led the victim into this outcome, but I'm thankful no one else was injured.

Well, but for the bunny. I'm sad about that as well.

There is some compelling research showing that playing Tetris after experiencing a traumatic event like this helps reduce PTSD or the formation of hurtful memories. It may be worth trying, even though I think the study involved playing the game within 6 hours of the event.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... -car-crash

[ghostrunner]

I actually played baseball on Xbox. Couldn’t go to sleep yet and couldn’t watch anything. Figured it would give me something to do and focus on.

[Arthur Dent]

Wow. What an awful story. I’m so sorry.

I think it’s a natural and healthy thing after some bad happens to think if you could have done something better, but it really really does not sound like it.

Take care of yourself.

[ghostrunner]

I'm not beating myself up too much, but thinking about what I should do better if something similar happens. No way I could have actually helped in this case, though I didn't know for sure at the time.

Cop came to the scene today because I called after noticing they didn't quite get everything and I didn't want the woman who lives there to find it. She walks her dog out there and I think she's at least a bit mentally ill. Would've been bad. She was yelling like crazy last night.

Found out from the cop that the woman had been at a bar with her boyfriend and both were drunk and been told they were drinking too much. They got in a fight and she stole his car, so all that stuff was his. He'd been kicked out of the place he was living. Still don't know her name. I'm hoping to find out, for whatever reason.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Sorry you had to go through al that, ghost.

What a [expletive] up situation.

[CardsofSTL]

Unfortunate that you had to experience all that ghostrunner.
It's easy to second guess after the fact but we all react to these kinds of things to the best of our abilities. Seems to me like there's very little anyone was going to be able to do in this situation.

[sighyoung]

Hope you're doing o.k., ghostrunner.

I'm so sorry that your experienced something that traumatic. As several have already said, there's no way to prepare for an event like that, and there's nothing you could do. It's good of you to wish to be able to do something.

I do wish you peace.