This morning's drive was exciting, right at the end... As I turned off 1st Avs S, onto 4th Street about a half mile from work, I noticed one of the street lights was askew... oh, someone must have hit that last... oh, the cars are still there... and the people are standing next to them... and there is no rescue units... oh dear.
I pulled off into a parking lot, grabbed the cell phone and headed over. A red SUV had been broadsided by a white sedan. The impact had sent the SUV into the light pole where both had come to rest. The pole was snapped at the bottom and leaning over. There was an older woman holding a 3 year old little girl. There was young (20 yrs old?) petit woman holding a tiny baby, shaking hard and standing to the side. Two other cars had stopped and the drivers were both on their phones. So I didn't call myself. I started asking if people were OK. At first I couldn't get any answer out of the woman with the little girl. She looked ok, so I went over to the mother. Her husband was one of the people on the phone. The baby was OK, she was 2 months old and already falling back asleep in her mothers arms. The mom was pretty scared. She went over to sit on one of the nearby benches. The woman holding the little girl turned out to be the driver of the white sedan. She was OK, I think she was just in shock when I first spoke to her.
I didn't see the accident. People had just gotten out of the cars when I came around the corner. Another woman with a badge for the nearby children's hospital (but not a nurse) saw the accident. She said the red car was speeding down 4th street. I'm not sure which way the white sedan was going. One of them ran the red light. Both airbags had gone off in the SUV. Not sure about the sedan. There was a baby (infant’s) seat in the SUV, I didn't see a child's seat, but honestly, I didn't look that close. The little girl didn't look hurt at all, thank goodness. The father had started rubbing his shoulder and holding his arm funny by the time the EMT's got there. I think the adrenaline was running out of his system and he was starting to feel it. I hung out and tried to help where I could. By the time I was leaving, there were two fire trucks, an ambulance, and several St Pete Police cruisers. There wasn't any thing else I could do but get in the way. One of the officers walked over to me as I was starting up the Rav4. He asked if I had seen anything. Nope, everyone was out of their cars by the time I came around the corner. "OK, I'll let you get on you're way."
As I had started around the corner onto 4th Street, the 7:30 “funny” was on NPR. I don't even remember what the story was... I got in to the office at 7:45. I wasn't at the accident for much more then 10 minutes. I hope I was able to provide some help, or at least some comfort. The USGS has offered first aid training and CPR training for years. In fact they require it for people who work in the field. Anyone at the office, field personnel or not, can take it. It’s come in handy over the years. This isn't the first time I've headed over to the site of an accident to see if I could help. The last time was when we were in Wales when someone had rolled their car. That was a strange one, begin so far from home. Everyone was OK there, too. That was just one of two accidents we saw that rainy Welsh day...
I never know whether to stop or not. I'm only minimally trained. Even with the training I'm not obligated to stop. But I would feel guilty thinking maybe there was something I could have done, beside call 911. I wouldn't want to make matters worse. I just hope that my being there has, in some small way, helped the people involved.
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