First Day on the job with Fire

[Vladimir]

FIRE!!!



Well then, go on now. How 'bout a bit 'o OJT?

[Divinus Arma]

Had a fatal Traffic Accident the other night. Luckily I have seen many of these with my previous job, so I don't get too bothered when I see the dead and injured. A Ford Explorer went off the Interstate, rolled, and slammed into a large dirt wall. All four passengers were ejected due to no seatbelts. The young lady I was working on had a neck like a zig-zag and was clearly broken as well as a deformed shattered left tibula & fibula, broken right clavicle, and broken right forearm. She was screaming as best she could as we got her on the spine board and immobilized her neck. She would start to fall asleep, and I, while holding her head in place, would yell down to her: "Honey, Stay with me! Wake up!" Her response would be to wake up, frantically look around, and then start screaming again. She was about 15 feet from the car. The other three were thrown over 100 feet over the dirt wall and down into a rocky ravine. The 18 year old girl who died sustained massive head trauma. Her 19 yr old boyfriend, who's face resembled ground beef (smashed jaw- no teeth, blood pouring from his mouth all over the place, etc.), was found weeping over her body and had to be pried away. He was actually the lucky one. The last person, a 30 yr old parolee, was critical with various internal injuries and broken bones. It is a wonder that those two men lived, considering the distance they were thrown.

Normally, when one is involved in a rollover with no seatbelt, they are thrown halfway out and the car rolls over them, cutting them in half or squishing out their insides like a beetle that got stepped on.

Almost every traffic accident death I have ever seen came from one or more of the following factors:

(1) No seatbelt- This last accident, plus a guy who slammed into another car head on and planted the rearview mirror into the back of his skull. Also, three Marines were involved in a rollover and were all squished together under the vehicle. We couldn't tell how many there were in the bloody mess until we observed an extra foot.

(2) Speed- A young Marine picked up his girlfriend who snuck out of her parents house. 15 Minutes later, he spun the car out on a curvem where the back end then struck a tree. That car exploded and caught fire, and witnesses heard the girl screaming as she burnt alive in the vehicle.

(3) Alcohol- Too numerous to list. The driver was drunk and did some stupid passing manuever. The truck was going so fast that it rolled seven or eight times, with the force so great that it exceeded the load capacity of a passenger seatblet causing it to break and launching the guy out of the vehicle where his head struck a railroad tie. Brains everywhere. We tried to hide his body from the slowly passing amtrak train full of wide-eyed shocked passengers.

(4) Falling Asleep at the wheel- An illegal immigrant fell asleep and crossed into oncoming traffic, he woke up, jammed the wheel to the right, spun around and was slammed by an SUV into the driver's side door. We found him in the backseat.

(5) Motorcycles- A guy was cruising along on his cycle on the freeway when He was struck from behind. He was launched from the bike and was struck and dragged by multiple vehicles. We found his remains spread out over 1/2 mile.

Any one of these is bad enough, but the more you mix the better your chances of death. Speed increases severity, Alcohol guarantees driver error, and no seatbelts are almost always a free ticket to a dirt nap. Motorcycles are just inherently dangerous due to their limited protection.

Anyway. The job is going great. Hard work of course- I am guaranteed to sweat my balls off every day, but I love it.

EDIT: Photos.

[Crazed Rabbit]

That's horrific, DA. I hope the rest of the people turn out okay.

As a side not, I filed traffic accident reports over the summer part of the time, and the most common cause of an accident in the reports was someone pulling out from a stop sign onto a road and striking a car or getting struck.

Crazed Rabbit

[Quid]

That's horrific, DA. I hope the rest of the people turn out okay.

As a side not, I filed traffic accident reports over the summer part of the time, and the most common cause of an accident in the reports was someone pulling out from a stop sign onto a road and striking a car or getting struck.

Crazed Rabbit

Ok, that was the cause of the actual accident but what was it that made them disregard stop signs? Unattentiveness because of drunkeness? Tiredness? Drugs? Etc.

I gather that was what DA was talking about.

Quid

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Probably just plain unattentiveness/poor line of sight. There's a reason rotaries are way safer than intersections.

[ajaxfetish]

Also, DA's reasons were associated with traffic accident deaths. It sounds as though CR's reports were for accidents in general. Bad timing pulling out may cause more accidents, but how many of those are fatal?

Ajax

[Crazed Rabbit]

Ok, that was the cause of the actual accident but what was it that made them disregard stop signs? Unattentiveness because of drunkeness? Tiredness? Drugs? Etc.

I gather that was what DA was talking about.

Quid

Sasaki's got it; not paying attention, mostly.

Also, DA's reasons were associated with traffic accident deaths. It sounds as though CR's reports were for accidents in general. Bad timing pulling out may cause more accidents, but how many of those are fatal?

Good point.

Crazed Rabbit

[Divinus Arma]

Ya. Deaths. Most non-fatal accident are rear-enders from following too closely or traveling too fast for the conditions. Speed is the greatest facotr os basic accidents. My comments above refer to deaths. Those four factors are like a director stating: "cue death!" Seatbelts especially. I mean, consider running as fast as you can head first into a brick wall. That's only like tenb miles an hour. At 20 mph, you would experience FOUR times as much force. Energy quadruples with velocity.

[Papewaio]

Energy quadruples with velocity.

Energy squares with velocity.

Go twice as fast and you hit four times as hard.
Go three times as fast and you hit nine times as hard.
Go 10 times as fast and you hit 1000 times as hard.

Seat belts have a secondary role in helping prevent accidents in the first place. By keeping you in your seat at the wheel it can help you remain in control longer rather then sliding out of the driver position.