I-15 Adventure

Lisa had a little adventure last week, I got my chance yesterday. So, I was on my way to a business meeting not far from the school where Lisa works and stopped to get a spot of gas. While there, I heard about a bad accident on southbound I-15 that involved a couple of trailers colliding. However, they said it happened 3 hours before so I proceeded in that very direction assuming it had been cleaned up. As luck would have it, traffic was just starting again after a huge segment had been closed for hours.

As I slowed down to the nearly crawling speed I checked my rear view mirror and saw the SUV immediately behind me get smashed from behind by a car going very fast. The SUV was barely moving when hit but it still managed to get tossed into the air a bit while the smaller sedan was violently whirled around in the opposite direction, spinning on the front left remaining frame about a foot behind where the wheel should have been.

I exited my car immediately and started calling 911 when I was chilled by the shrieking of several children. All the windows of the SUV burst upon impact and I could see that there were 3 young kids: about 4, 2, and an infant. While checking on the kids first as well as the mother and another younger woman, although scared, I couldn't notice any injuries and neither could their mother. I then continued to search them and ask them questions like, "where does it hurt?"

The woman on the emergency line asked a plethora of questions to make sure I wasn't reporting the same accident that had just occurred minutes before this one two miles ahead from another car rear ending a semi. After giving her enough information about the kids, I glanced at the other vehicle and realized that I was the only person out of my car helping besides a camera man from a news station approaching--no doubt trying to cover the other accidents but stuck in traffic.

I motioned for the man to put down the camera and help the man in the sedan, who hadn't moved at all and whose interior was beginning to fill with smoke. When he didn't respond I may have commanded him to drop the camera and help with a derogatory term something similar to but not necessarily "Richard-cranium." He certainly heard me that time and dropped the camera from his shoulder for a second, hesitated, and then continued filming. I was later told that certain media professionals are trained not to help, but to keep on rolling. At this point an older woman began scanning the children and I heard her say she was a nurse.

Since I had to tell the 911 operator about the man's condition and until this point I had only assumed he was alone (he was) I went to his car and tried prying his door open. Some heaving and jerking got it open and smoke billowed from all around him. Using questions I was trained to say, but I can't recall now when or where, I asked him if he was ok, if he could move his hands and wiggle his toes. All of which he responded to...eventually. His airbag had deployed and clearly knocked him for a good deal more than a 10 count.

I then reported to the 911 operator what I assumed was his condition and the nurse came by a minute later to check him out. Looking around I noticed a handful of spectators out of their cars, and a slow parade of onlookers from their vehicles. No one else bothered to help, offer a warm car for those in the accident, or even offer a phone to call families. I was about to offer myself when I heard the siren of the paramedics blazing up the shoulder and another on the frontage road. The mother of the children thanked me as they got into the ambulance.

I suppose I got a little excitement, but not the kind I like. Especially when that includes being very frustrated with 3 accidents all caused by people speeding and not paying attention. Not to mention the mobs that idly watched the accident. Here is a video about the crash from earlier that morning with a word about the accident I spoke of:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com