Thread: another unecessary loss of life.

With every death, it's always the ones who are left behind who are affected. People don't think about others, it's all about me - I want to drink 25 beers and a bottle of vodka and then get behind the wheel or I want to see if my 10 year old Japanese fartbox will hit 180Kph around a left hand hairpin.
Then they wipe themselves, or, even worse, others out.

And all of a sudden, the I has become many.

From the poor firies, ambos and cops that have to cut what's left out of them out of their cars, and go and inform loved ones....to the relatives and friends themselves. Many lives touched and affected by someone's selfish decision.

So they are laid there, cold and still in their wooden box, not seeing, not knowing, not caring. And definitely not indestructable....

I'll never forget the first week of having my licence...

Driving back from Melbourne after a very late night out with mates, I was driving along the Western Hwy and without warning was detoured through some backroads. I kept following for ages along some sh*tty back-roads which weren't doing my new cars paint any favours, and hadn't seen a soul or a sign for quite some time. Eventually I had enough of being lost and took a turn-off back towards the Hwy figuring I'd passed the worst.

As I was near the Hwy and over a crest, my first sight was a haze of blindingly bright lights and a couple of young coppers heaving up in the grass. I stopped to see if they were ok, offered them some kind words, water n some chewy, which was accepted well, and was told to continue through and speak to the officer in charge. I continued and was headed for the accident scene a few meters away.

The officer was concerned about what I was about to see cos I was so young. Clearly the poor bugger had been sick, crying, n was white as a sheet, but he was still holding up okay'ish, well, better than most others around. He escorted me through the scene, but warned me not to look left...at the last second I couldn't help but have a look.

I saw a mangled wreck of unidentifiable ark blue car, a puree'd driver, what I thought was a passenger sliced into pieces through a sharded windscreen, and things that there are no words for...the scene was incomprehensible. It was surreal watching that and the people surrounding that situation, like nothing you can ever imagine.

Everyone was standing transfixed or sitting down having a smoke, but there was deathly silence apart from the generators running the lights. I was so shocked by what I saw that I honestly had no emotion at the time other than awe...I couldn't even imagine what it was like to be in anybody's position out there.

That was the first RTA I ever saw, and it has never left me. You just can't help but wonder how many of these senseless incidents could have been avoided through commonsense. There is no doubt in my mind that the people left to sort out these situations must be traumatised permanently, yet get no recognition for their efforts.

Originally Posted by It'sNotWorthComplaining!

Such a stupid waste of life again

Stupid waste of a house more like.

Originally Posted by El Duderino

I'll never forget the first week of having my licence...

Driving back from Melbourne after a very late night out with mates, I was driving along the Western Hwy and without warning was detoured through some backroads. I kept following for ages along some sh*tty back-roads which weren't doing my new cars paint any favours, and hadn't seen a soul or a sign for quite some time. Eventually I had enough of being lost and took a turn-off back towards the Hwy figuring I'd passed the worst.

As I was near the Hwy and over a crest, my first sight was a haze of blindingly bright lights and a couple of young coppers heaving up in the grass. I stopped to see if they were ok, offered them some kind words, water n some chewy, which was accepted well, and was told to continue through and speak to the officer in charge. I continued and was headed for the accident scene a few meters away.

The officer was concerned about what I was about to see cos I was so young. Clearly the poor bugger had been sick, crying, n was white as a sheet, but he was still holding up okay'ish, well, better than most others around. He escorted me through the scene, but warned me not to look left...at the last second I couldn't help but have a look.

I saw a mangled wreck of unidentifiable ark blue car, a puree'd driver, what I thought was a passenger sliced into pieces through a sharded windscreen, and things that there are no words for...the scene was incomprehensible. It was surreal watching that and the people surrounding that situation, like nothing you can ever imagine.

Everyone was standing transfixed or sitting down having a smoke, but there was deathly silence apart from the generators running the lights. I was so shocked by what I saw that I honestly had no emotion at the time other than awe...I couldn't even imagine what it was like to be in anybody's position out there.

That was the first RTA I ever saw, and it has never left me. You just can't help but wonder how many of these senseless incidents could have been avoided through commonsense. There is no doubt in my mind that the people left to sort out these situations must be traumatised permanently, yet get no recognition for their efforts.

If everyone saw what you did that night, people might actually get the message and stop telling cops to "go and catch real criminals" when they get stopped for speeding or their evening is inconvenienced slightly by and RBT.

Matt

Thats some pretty heavy stuff to be carrying around for a young bloke El Duderino! But having said that, I bet every single time you thought of mashing the loud pedal and going spastic, that image of what you saw popped straight back into your head, resulting in you still being here to tell us about it.

...

I don't think there is one person here that can say they have always been a careful and considerate driver their whole driving life, God knows im no angel! lol
There is only one mention of the word in this whole thread that sums up what alot of people lack and its a life saver ...

COMMON SENCE!

Stupidity is a result at the lack of it, which hands your life over with your ass on a silver platter to chance.

Being a truckie, I have seen some STEEEEEEYOOOPID crap go on right in front of me that just makes you wonder WTF are they thinking and it hasn't end well, not meaning death though mind you. But thats another bug bear argument for another thread.
Stupidity: Picture a Motorcyclist going between to container trucks on a highway, only to be clipped by the trailer and passed over by the tri-axle of the trailer ... Not pretty, now while tradgic, he made the choice, but someone had:
lost a father,
a husband,
a friend,
to clean him up off the road

That to me, is a MASSIVE inconvenience ... It's an interuption to life for many, bought upon a stupid decision by one person.
Whether involved directly (Police, ambos, towies, the counciler talking to that poor bastard that ran the bloke over etc) or indirectly (those stuck in traffic) everyones life gets affected and its an inconvenience!


C&B

Craig

The accident that started this thread again confirms a set of figures I have mentioned before in this forum - random breath test campaigns almost always show statistics of way under 1% of drivers above the limit (even where the campaigns are in a time or place where drivers are likely to be over!); but mandatory blood tests for all drivers involved in fatal accidents show around 30-40% above the limit.

I ask you, does this support the concept that speed is the major root cause of most fatal accidents? Or that airbags are the best preventative for road deaths? Or - any of the other panaceas that are routinely trotted out after horrific accidents such as this?

John

El Duderino, I had a couple of similar experiences early on in my driving "career" too.

The first was three guys who had come out of the pub, decided to drive home. Only 200m from the pub the car (an old MG had left the road and hit a tree. Driver out and just a bit dazed, front passenger had exited via the windscreen and the wiper had removed part of his head, rear passenger half under the front seat with what turned out to be 2 broken legs and spinal injuries.

The second was a biker with a pillion passenger. Had passed myself and my colleague like a bat out of hell. 5 minutes later we stopped at an accident scene, with a very shaken truckie, the bike on it's side in the centre lane, the rider sitting on the crash barrier with his head between his knees, and what was left of the pillion passenger under a hastily thrown picnic blanket.

So as a result, did these affect the way I drove? Yes. I have never got in the car after a drink. Drinking and driving are mutually exclusive activities.

Have I never exceeded the speed limit? I wish I could say yes here, but youthful exuberence or arrogance, call it what you like, has frequently overcome the images that crop up in the head from time to time.

Originally Posted by Disco_Balls

Thats some pretty heavy stuff to be carrying around for a young bloke El Duderino!

That was 11 years ago, and I can still recall every last little detail of that incident...it was sickening.

I missed the crash obviously, but the entire aftermath was like a surreal movie unfolding through the windows/windscreen, but I never wanted to believe what I saw was real...it was too real to absorb. All I could do was give the young coppers some chewy n water and sit them down and try to relax...they both were properly f*cked up. Their reactions said more than words could about what was to come. These people were the toughest to me, but I knew they'd had enough at that moment...there were no real words exchanged. The crash was so fresh that these young cops first on scene, the officer in charge had just arrived, someone had a chance to light up the area, and nobody had had a chance to continue the detour signs.

Like I said, this situation has never left me, ever. I went into shock when talking to mum when I got home, n she debriefed me damned well (she's an ex-ambo nurse). I know exactly what she means when you see things that you cannot un-forget. If only people realised what really happens in a decent "off", they would think twice.