Just Saw An Accident

[ProfessorGAC]

Fairly bad.
I was coming home from the pot store. (No, I was not under the influence! :rofl
I was 3 or 4 hundred yards behind a semi, another car in the left lane next to truck.
Suddenly: BRAKE LIGHT! TIRE SQUEAL!
BANG!!!!
I was still over 300 yards away and hear the impact.
I only heard 2, but when I inched up there, there were 3 cars and the truck.
The cars were totaled! Truck lost front bumper. I wasn't even sure what model of car the Nissan was. It was pretty crunched up.
I'm guessing one car got pushed into the truck, because driver standing on the brake.
I stopped. Others going northbound did too.
Called 911. City & county cops showed up. No state cop (yet) because it is a state highway I expected one.. (What used to be Route 66.)
Three people were hurt. Ambulances took 2 away. The third was still there when I left. Don't know if they were waiting for a 3rd ambulance or that person didn't need one.
There was blood all over the car interiors.
Because the truck was in the way I didn't see enough to say exactly what happened. I saw 2 cars bouncing sideways and the aftermath.
Cop took my statement but, not sure it's worth much.
The ambulance guys weren't reacting like anything was life threatening.
So, maybe nobody got hurt super badly.
I hope so.

[redstatebluegirl]

1. I hope all of them are ok.

It is really traumatizing to see one of those in person. Hugs to you.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. I've Seen 8 Now

But, the other 7 were true fender benders, or slightly worse.
I was in 2. Broadsided by a guy who ran a red light, and rear ended by a guy who didn't realize the left turn lane was slick.
So, I guess I only witnessed 5 others.
In the others, I only remember one person bleeding much.
This was much bloodier.

[redstatebluegirl]

8. I was the first one on a fatality accident when I was 17.

I lived out in the country (off the paved roads). A neighbor missed a turn and hit a tree. I have never forgotten that.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Geez!

Yeah, this was nothing like a fatal accident.
There have been many near us because we live only a couple miles from an interstate, and we're truck heavy, because warehouse heaven is a few miles north of us.
But, I've not seen one.

[redstatebluegirl]

12. It is not something that you can get out of your mind.

I imagine it would bother me just as much to see people hurt, I'm pretty soft hearted.

[Under The Radar]

2. Weed is safe?

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Legal Here

So, yeah.
I never smoke and go anywhere.

[Kali]

3. it is amazing what is survivable

saw a mess on the interstate a couple of weeks ago, looked bad. turned out nobody hurt too bad

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10387672

[handmade34]

5. hate accidents!

glad all seem ok... still, it is extremely upsetting... I've had my share

[Demovictory9]

6. today's cars "scrunch up" purposely to absorb the impact... so hopefully they did their job

[ProfessorGAC]

9. I'm Guessing Yes

When I got broadsided, my car looked like a boomerang.
But, I only had a nick on the cheekbone from glass.
If someone was in the passenger seat, they would have been hurt pretty badly, but there was room to live.
I'm hoping the crumple engineering worked here, too.

[malaise]

10. I'm just glad you weren't one of those cars

Damn that must have been hard to watch

[ProfessorGAC]

13. I Was Far Enough Back

I never even had to hit the brakes hard.
I was cruising, top down, at around 50, listening to music. (Smoking a cigar. Don't forget about the cigar!)
I was one of the slow ones.
The thing I was shocked at was how loud the impact was.
It was like on Mythbusters when they dropped a car out of plane!

[malaise]

15. Read that

You were 'chilling' enough to process what was going on. Mythbusters is right.

[PJMcK]

14. I hope you're okay, emotionally, Professor

It's disturbing to witness bad things. I hope you won't suffer from the memories. Thanks for sharing your story.

Needless to say, I also hope the folks involved will recover.

[marble falls]

16. Almost a free verse poem there, Prof. Nice piece.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. I've only witnessed two accidents so far.

My heart was racing each time. No serious injuries either time, I think.

The last one was an elderly couple on an exit ramp as I was passing by them on the interstate. Then the old guy who was driving started to turn back towards the interstate (first noticed it through my peripheral vision) like he took the wrong exit by mistake. I sped up to give him room to merge back onto the highway, but didn't think he'd make it because the ground/grass between the exit and the interstate had quite a dip in it. Sure enough, their vehicle went down the dip and then up the other side like a ramp! Through my rearview mirror, I saw their car airborne (slightly) before landing onto the interstate, then weaving violently until the passenger side slammed into a concrete barrier separating each side of the highway. I even saw the old woman in the passenger seat with her mouth wide open before the crash, like she was screaming. Meanwhile, the old man had both hands on the wheel and looked straight ahead like nothing was unusual.

I was about to pull over, but there were about twenty cars and trucks that stopped behind them. (The car had bounced back to a stop across the interstate to block them anyway.) I didn't know if I was legally obligated to stop, but figured there were lots of witnesses already and then continued on my way.

No reports about it on the local news later, so they were surely okay.

[MuseRider]

18. It was good of you to stay

even though you don't think what you knew about the accident was much, it still could help. So many people never even think to stay or just decide that their time is worth more than those who were in the accident.

I doubt I will ever be able to use the phrase, "I was coming home from the pot store." Here in Kansas it is still referred to as "evil weed" aloud mind you....they say that out loud on the floor. My god, not even medical pot.

It has been years since I used it fairly regularly and likely would not much now. My husband has problems using it too much in the past and would not be able to stay out of a stash. I did have a small amount I used when my GP got so bad I could not stand the pain. It did help but not easy to get.

Back to the topic. Thank you for staying and helping with what you could. I am an old, retired nurse and have stopped at quite a few nasty accidents out here in the boonies, once keeping a severely injured man in the ditch and laying on him to keep him from trying to get to his buddy who was stuck in the car when it blew up. It can get pretty nasty but still, we are all responsible for each other in those circumstances but not many would actually stick around like you did.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. The Pot Store

My wife & I have been legal for 3 years, with med card.
I have MS; she's has severe vertebral arthritis & anxiety.
It's 100% legal now, but med card holders pay a lower price, and no state sales tax. So, it's worth maintaining the card.
We have 3 stores in the county. About 700,000 of us.
Two are in the biggest city, but one doesn't sell flower or vape except to card holders.
They reopened yesterday.
There were on-line and drive-up from mid-March until now. Pain in the neck, because they have a crappy website!
And you can't order unless they're open anyway!
They put in lexan shields, big black & red circles on the floor where you have to wait.
Only three people in the buy room at a time.
I felt pretty safe. Of course, 100% masks, & worn correctly!

[MuseRider]

20. Awesome!

Lucky you! It sounds like you both have conditions perfect for weed to take care of. I doubt I ever see it in my lifetime. All the states around us have at least medical mj I think. Turns out we sent all our cops to the borders to catch those coming into Kansas. It reminds me of the bad old days when Vern Miller made planes flying over Kansas take the alcoholic drinks from passengers until they were passed Kansas airspace. What a backward lot we have here.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Can't Identify!

Remember, this is the state that made Al Capone famous & rich when selling liquor was illegal!
Don't think any part of the state was ever as uptight as you describe.

[MuseRider]

22. We have been good on some things

but very uptight about a lot of other things. It is a very odd place to live in. Where I am I can go anywhere and not feel threatened at all and not really even know who the trumpers are unless they want to show it and mostly they do now.

Anyway, I like your state better for being much cooler and forward thinking. We do still have abortion with very few, if any hoops to go through and that is very unpopular but somehow we did get that through but most everything else, meh. I live in the country and can do what I want mostly.

[MuseRider]

23. sorry, double post

[lanlady]

24. Had a near-miss a few years ago

On I-95, beginning of DC area rush hour, a guy on a motorcycle in front of me tipped over and down he went onto the highway, falling flat onto his side underneath his bike. I was traveling at 50 mph. I slammed on the brakes and came to a stop about 8 feet away from him. If traffic had been moving any faster, I'm sure I would have hit him. The cars behind us all came to a halt; everyone tried to process what they had just seen; and then we all reached for our phones to call 911. As this was happening, the motorcyclist bravely managed to scrape himself off the road and stood up, slowly but steadily. His leather bike jacket and pants were torn into strips and his right arm and leg were bleeding profusely. Then this strange, wonderful crowd dynamic event occurred: we rolled down our windows and started to clap for him, this phoenix arisen from the wreck of his motorcycle.

Tragically, later that same week, another motorcyclist fell off his bike very close to the same spot on I-95 and was killed by a truck as he tried to pull himself up.

Even an atheist like me can't help but think of the phrase "there but for the grace of god go I"

[ProfessorGAC]

25. That's Quite The Event

No accident, but I was once moving from I-90/94 onto I-57 just before it crosses I-80.
Guy stood up on the seat of his crotch rocket, gunned it, stood it up on one wheel and just became a vanishing point.
On the expressway!!!
I half expected to see him as a human skid mark a few miles up.
He survived that stupid stunt, I guess.
Also, my golf buddy got torn up when a car side swiped him into a retaining wall at a tollway booth. Lucky he was down to 30-35mph when it happened. He spent 3 weeks in hospital, 9 months rehabbing. (Counting skin grafts)