Aftermath (original) (raw)
footpad jittery
October 25 2011, 21:56
Okay, That was... unsettling. Could have been much worse though. And now I know what an airbagged face looks like.
So we're driving up to Köln on a pleasant cool late-autumn afternoon, in good driving conditions with overcast sky, clear air and light traffic. Aki's driving, as usual, and I'm in the passenger seat and kinda distracted, as usual, when (as far as Aki could piece together afterwards) a young guy in a silver Volkswagen Golf simply cut left across a larger black car, who had effectively no chance to avoid him. They collided at 50 km/h and glass and car bits sprayed everywhere. It happened so fast that I was barely aware of something badly wrong before everything was still. Then a profoundly startled-looking guy was climbing out of one car, while only an ominous stillness showed from the other.
I've always said that megadog is the person I'd want to be around in a full-scale catastrophe. But it's got to be said that akeela is the one you want on your side when more localised hell has broken loose. Me, I focused on only two things—first, not ending up under a car myself, and secondly checking if anyone needed help, which is certainly a laudable and appropriate set of priorities. But it was Aki who secured our car after I'd jumped out of it, called the emergency services, kept an overview of everything that was going on, and generally kept the world under control. Now there's a quality I admire.
To my considerable relief, I found a mumbling, extremely dazed and apparently rather concussed young man who eventually had to be carted away in an ambulance, but who was basically doing the most important things one can do after an accident, such responding to people's voices, not projectile haemorrhaging, and so on. All I really had to do was make soothing noises and persuade him to sit still until the paramedics got there and started poking him and putting collars on him and so on.
Whereupon the stress reaction landed on me with a thump and I developed a case of the shakes that persisted until I stole a cigarette from someone. I don't smoke but at that point the nicotine nausea was the lesser of two evils.
Afterwards Aki remarked, rather proudly, that his initial report to the police had been so succinct and sufficient that the despatcher's only response was, "Okay, we're coming." So you see, he is rather clever and good in a crisis.
Things I learned today, mostly by doing them the wrong way in retrospect:
- Airbags give people's faces a strange, patchy, abraded look.
- Airbags surround the driver with horrible stinking smoke. Don't panic! It doesn't necessarily mean the car's on fire.
- It's almost irresistible to run straight to the accident and start trying to help people. Don't. Take a deep breath and survey the scene first. (Or have an akeela to do that bit for you.)
- It's almost irresistible to run to the first casualty you see. (I did.) Don't. Check every car first. Triage.
- If you're staying with a casualty who appears to be stable, talk to them anyway. Get their personal details from them, their medicaments and allergies, their shoe size, whatever you can note down to give to the paramedics. Even if the information's useless, it's occupational therapy for them and you.
- Afterwards you'll want to cry, but not as much as the accident's participants will. Find someone and tell them all about what you've been through. Or blog about it.
- Trust your wolf.
Oh, and people? Make sure you know first aid. I've got to say that, even if I'm by no means comprehensively trained, while I was running towards that car I was really really glad I'd have at least some idea what to do if I found someone in serious trouble. If I go my whole life without doing more than putting a sticking-plaster on a child's knee, first aid is worth knowing just for those ten seconds of very relative peace of mind.