I Drove Past a Fatal Accident Today

[AnnieBW]

My husband and I were on our way to DC from Pittsburgh, on Interstate 79 near Morgantown, WV. We saw traffic slow down, and we saw that a bad accident had just occurred on the northbound side of the road. A woman was thrown from her car and was on the side of the road. Many people were pulling over, getting out of their cars and checking. Unfortunately, we couldn't do so safely. However, we did call *77 and notified the WVA state police. I just checked the Morgantown NBC affiliate website, and they said that the woman was dead at the scene.

I don't know if we could have done anything else - my husband has seizures, and would have been pretty useless at the scene. THere were many other people who were pulling over. I would like to think that we did our part by notifying the authorities. However, I still feel sad and guilty. Life is short. You never know when your number is going to be up.

[Redstone]

1. You can only do what you can do. You did what you could do.

No need to feel guilty.

Redstone

[JohnnyLib2]

2. Two EMTs in the extended family--

and they both say stay out of the way unless you have skills. All those stopped cars often delay the emergency help, too.

Still, it's a tragedy all around.

[Trajan]

3. We saw one like that ...

A decade ago on 15N near St George Utah. We were just passing through ...

The family was in a small truck (Father, Mother, Baby), and they passed us fast, weaving through lanes like fast drivers will do at times ... It was reckless ....

Then 5 minutes later, we saw their truck flipped in the median, dust settling in the air, with two semi's pulling over ....

The small truck had weaved too close to one of the semis, and clipped his bumper, and went into a spin and lost it ....

ALL were ejected : The mother was obviously dead .. The father had a massive head injury, and was already in shock and breathing VERY fast and shallow ...

The baby, miraculously, was in a child safety seat, sitting upright in the middle of the median, with a small cut on its forehead, but no other obvious injury; crying hysterically ...

My wife grabbed a blanket and comforted the child as best as she could until the troopers arrived and took over ....

It was horrifying, fascinating, and heartbreaking ...

It took years to get those images cleansed from my mind ....

I am sure the baby survived, but we never heard about the father ... we were just passing through ....

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. It's a horrible feeling

The first time I rolled on a fatal (for a newspaper), the bodies were still in the cars when we got there. It wasn't particularly bloody or anything; they were just... dead. But they'd been alive about 20 minutes earlier, and I was overwhelmed with how quickly and unexpectedly death can happen. I thought of the families who'd soon get a call telling them their lives were changed irrevokably forever.

And there I was, on the side of the road, hands on my knees, trying not to throw up in front of all those highway patrol officers and EMTs. I asked the CHP captain, because I knew he'd seen many such accidents, "How do you get used to it?" He said what you'd expect: "You don't."

I'm kind of glad I'll never forget that. It made me a more careful driver.

[crim son]

5. You have no reason to feel guilty.

If you feel sad, think that perhaps for you the woman's death served as a valuable reminder of what's precious. Take the thought and hold on to it, and you will have done the poor lady a bit of justice.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

6. Sorry, I've been there too.

Drove down the offramp into my neighborhood and saw a smashed up car with a man's body half out the driver's side window. He was clearly unconcious, I didn't know if he was dead, but I did have an eerie feeling. Emergency vehicles were arriving, and it wasn't safe for me to stop. But I was incredibly disturbed.

I called the CHP the next day and they told me that he had some kind of heart attack while driving on the freeway and flipped his car over the bridge onto the bottom of the offramp where I saw the car. His car actually landed on another car stopped at the bottom of the offramp and killed the woman driving that car too. I didn't notice that car when I drove by, I was so freaked out by seeing the man's lifeless body half out of his car.

The image will stay with me forever.

[Kiouni]

7. I'm a paramedic

If I were you I would simply keep them from moving, so they don't injure their neck unless their really dead. and you'll know when someone is really dead. If their not breathing do your cpr skill set until EMS arrives. If you don't know cpr thats ok just hold them still and call for help.

and the number one thing you can do to help out the EMS personnel DON'T RUBBERNECK!

[Elidor]

8. The best thing you can do is wear your seatbelt

And don't drive like an idiot. (Not implying you do.)

[pokerfan]

9. I was involved in a double fatal accident

a week after getting my driver's license, though I had been driving on a farmer's permit for two years. I'm hauling about 40,000 pounds of wheat for the elvator and am making a left hand turn off of a two lane highway. I'm waiting for enough room to make my turn cause I need more distance when starting from zero with 40,000 pounds. This little sports car coming up behind me doesn't even slow down and tries to pass me. They are going about 80 and meet a semi going about 50 the other way about 100 feet in front of me. The car goes flying off to my right and the semi winds up on my left.

I am first out and the semi driver is unharmed but a little dazed, says he's radioing for help. I'm first on the scene of the little Toyota with two college girls (I learn later). One is obviously dead. The other is seriously hurt but breathing. Bleeding pretty bad and I do the first aid thing (from Boy Scouts) until the paramedics show up about ten minutes later. I find out the next day she died en route to the hospital.

Two weeks later, same intersection, my dad is driving me and my littler brother to town, we come across another accident, triple fatality this time, though responders had already been there and covered the corpses with sheets.

Two months later, the state gave us a left hand turn lane.

Anyway, all I can say is life is short, shorter for some, longer for others. Too short any way it's sliced.

[Lyric]

10. I live in Morgantown, WV

I hadn't heard anything about this yet--let me go turn on the news.

I'm very sorry you had to see something that horrific. Were you near the I-68 interchange?

[Lyric]

11. Just checked the news...good God, it happened so close to me

MORGANTOWN -- One person died Tuesday afternoon in a traffic accident in Monongalia County.

Traffic was backed up for more than three and a half miles on Interstate 79.

The accident happened around 1:30 p.m. in the northbound lane of I-79 just past the Star City exit.

The Star City exit is the exit you take to get to *our* house. ThinkBlue1966 works at the Olive Garden that sits right off of that exit. They haven't released the victim's name yet. I'm praying that it's not someone I know. :(

Edited for spelling.

[spinbaby]

13. Hey, a Mountaineer!

:hi:

I went to school down there about 35 years ago and still drive through from time to time--we're always amazed at how big it's gotten.

That stretch of I79 between Star City and the state line seems pretty straightforward and undangerous. Wonder what happened.

[Blue Diadem]

12. Oh gosh Annie, don't feel guilty. You did all you could and

I think you did the right thing by not stopping and calling authorities instead. We have police and emt/paramedics in the family and they always say to not get in the way and to not jam the area with cars and onlookers.

:hug: I'm sorry you had to see that. I've been there, the images stay a long long time. Know that you did all you could.