Some months ago I was driving through the hills when I came upon a bad accident. A car had hit a large truck head on. A couple of people where helping the truck driver who had broken bones, but the car driver was still upright in his vehicle with no-one assisting. Several passing cars where stopped, with the occupants still inside their cars. No ambulane or police had arrived at this stage.
I drove up close to the scene and crawled into the wrecked vehicle through the passengers door. ( the drivers side was too damaged to open ) The driver had the steering wheel impacted in his chest and was probably in his last moment of life ( or had just died, perhaps 30 seconds before ) I wont go into the unpleasant details but as a farmer I have seen the signs many times before as life slips away. Another man came up. He informed me he was a helicopter pilot for emergency services and there only being room for one person in the car I crawled out and let him to take over. He called emergency services and had a bit of a look and that was about it. A couple of other people came to assist about this time.
I had my children in my own car and didnt want them to see it all, so I just turned around and left. ( there is more to this decision than I,m telling you in this post ). I found out later the driver was dead when the ambulance finally arrived.
I have been troubled by this ever since. I was probably the last person who saw the driver in his last seconds of life. Should we have tried to get the man out of the wreck and provide CPR. The helicopter pilot was much better equiped than me to make these decisions but didnt really do much. It was a very unpleasant sight and I,m not sure how I would have coped with doing mouth to mouth. Maybe we could have saved him, probably not from what I could see of the steering wheel impact.. Most of the other people just stayed in their cars. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE. ???
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