Rainbow Trite | TCWH | Every Day People

I am a strong believer that everything happens for a reason.
Sometimes I just have problems determining what the reason is.
Today, as I was driving home, I was singing at the top of my lungs, thinking about what I was going to do when I finally reached my destination, which just seems to be farther and farther away from my place of employment every day. "...refuse to bend so I keep bending 'til I br...." and just as I was getting ready to inhale, I saw a truck begin to pull off to the side of the road.
He must be pulling over so we can pass him. How thoughtful.
And, as the truck exited to the side of the road (just before the stoplight, where there wasn't a soul in front of him), the whole thing just tipped riiiiiggggghhhhht onnnnnn ovverrrrrr. It was such a bizarre turn of events that I wasn't even shocked. It was beautifully slow. Poetic, even.

When it finally dawned on me that this was AN ACCIDENT, and that the mammoth vehicle had rotated nearly 180', I gasped. All cars in front of me stopped. I stopped. I. JUST. STOPPED. Men and women alike sprang from their own vehicles, approached the truck, and upon ascertaining that the truck was indeed stationary, scaled the rig as they tried to pry the driver's side door open.

I floundered, holding my cell phone limply in my hand, having noted that 30 odd people had already dialed 911. Help was on the way. Help was on top of the truck.

As I sat there marveling at the compassion that human beings still extend to one another, I noticed that I was still sitting there. Inside the car.

I wonder why I didn't get out of my Jeep. I just sat there. Finally in shock. Wondering if I had just witnessed the end of someone's life.

I knew that if I got out of the car, that dh would be late for work.

I don't know if I made the right decision. I assessed the situation, knew that I would be more IN THE WAY than helpful (I have no medical experience, no first aid supplies, and only a cell phone - the only thing I would've been able to offer were fair to middling language skills - IF THAT), made sure that there was INDEED more able help and drove away.

What would you have done?

I was in a weird situation like that once. I was driving home at about 2 am on a single lane back road. I was the only car on the road for a while, but I saw headlights coming towards me in the opposite lane.

As the car passed me, it was swerving a bit and I looked in my rear view mirror while thinking the person was probably drunk or something. Then about 100 feet further back, the car veered too far towards the edge of the road, went up the embankment, into the air and landed upside-down. It happened just like in the movies.

This road wasn't well illuminated and didn't have many cross streets despite being a major, long route. Luckily I had stopped near a cross street and called the police with the information.

At that point, I decided I wasn't going to approach the car. I could see other cars coming up the road, and I needed to flag them down so they wouldn't ram the other car. But the main reasons I didn't go to the car were that I didn't want to move the person and injure them more, but also I didn't want to see anything horrific. I know that's selfish, but if I had seen something gruesome, it would have really messed me up. Plus, the people in the oncoming cars also stopped and offered help.

I never could find out what happened or if the person was ok, but I do think about it every once in a while.

comment by Kara at 01:50 PM on 01.07.06 [ link ]

You did the right thing. You realized that you would have just been in the way and in these situations there is such a thing as too much help. You saw the guy was getting help and so you chose correct.

There is still a lot of human compassion out there, don't forget.

comment by chantel at 08:02 PM on 01.06.06 [ link ]

I would have been completely useless in the situation. You did fine. At least you didn't freak out and make things worse.

I didn't know you were a Jeep girl. Me too.

comment by Jen at 08:46 PM on 01.06.06 [ link ]

One time when my brothers and I were going fishing, s truck in front of us was carrying two cows in a trailer. All of a sudden the trailer started drifting to the right. The cows eyes wer so big. The trailer drifted into the dirt and crashed. We could not tell if the cows were hurt. We did not stop to check.

comment by Dave T at 02:10 PM on 01.09.06 [ link ]