1 MVC...uh...make that 3 cars

Well, my shift yesterday was somewhat dull. We ran 2 calls and were dispatched but immediatly cancelled on a 3rd. The rest of the shift was quiet...almost too quiet.

The first call was for a MVC on the expressway, motorcycle vs. truck. You get 1 guess as to who won. The truck was cruising with traffic around 65mph. From what I was able to gather onscene, he had to slam on the brakes and the motorcyclist behind him didn't even have a chance to slow down. The motorcycle hit the rear of the truck, launching the rider clear of the bike. He hit the concrete divide and came to rest 10 ft from the bike, his right femur and left humorus broken.

Without ever seeing any x-rays, the bike, or even the patient, I can safely say the helmet saved his life. The majority of the hard shell had scraped away during the accident, protecting the gentleman's skull from the impacts at the same time.

Due to the speeds involved, the fact that our gent was on a motorcycle, and the types of injuries sustained- we ran 10-18 (lights/sirens) to the trauma center.

The other call was a lady that tried to stop her car from rolling downhill. She forgot to put the vehicle in "park" and it somehow rolled over her leg. Her knee was a bit swollen, but she'll be fine.

Now....the main reason I'm writing this entry was a very interesting call...What makes it so interesting?

I was off-duty on my way home from the station when it happened.

It was raining lightly this morning. I had just passed our headquarters when the car ahead of me (about 100 yards thankfully) spun out on the wet road and hit the concrete median backwards. Normally, I would've called it in and kept rolling...But since I witnessed the accident, I decided to stop for a moment and make sure the driver was OK.

Oh....I made sure my car was a good distance past his vehicle in case someone didn't see it in time and hit his car. That way it wouldn't be shoved into my car, hopefully.

The driver was fine, his red Jaguar had moderate rear-end damage. His phone wouldn't connect so I called 911 for him to report the incident.

As I was talking to the dispatcher, a green car spun out and hit the metal guardrail on the opposite side of the expressway. The driver's side doors now smashed, the driver either froze or panicked, flooring the accellerator. Spinning the tires to gain traction, he took off headlong into oncoming traffic and smashed into a gold sedan head-on.

The dispatcher asked what happened (apparently I was yelling WHOA!!) and upgraded the call immediatly once I told her 2 more cars wrecked out.

Once the first police officer made it onscene, I told him that I'd witnessed the entire incident and that it was actually 2 different incidents. He checked on the driver of each vehicle then asked me what happened and which cars were which incident, etc...

About this time, the engine and ambulance arrived. Since I was still in uniform, they came straight to me at first. I told them I wasn't involved and then quickly told them what happened. As they went about checking on the patients, another officer and a Sergeant arrived. I again passed on what I'd seen. After the 3 PD guys joked about having a perfect witness, they took down my information and I was released to go my merry little way.

No one was really hurt from what I was able to gather. The lady in the gold car was choking from the airbag powder. She said her abdomen was hurting some from the seatbelt and her knee was hurting from where she hit it under the dash. The steering wheel was also bent and her sealbelt had locked the retentioner (a built-in feature that retracts the belt up to 6 inches, locking the belt in that position).

I was happy to head home, knowing that although I didn't save any lives, I had a feeling of satisfaction that comes from helping someone get through something difficult. It may sound stupid, but you'd just have to be there to understand it.

Take care and drive safely