First one I was ever at, was in Spanaway WA, just behind the back gate to Madigan AMC and McChord AFB on Rt 7.
Was coming up the left lane heading south, and past some Pontiac half way out in the right lane, like it was going to turn to the north bound lane..
just pass that I saw some motorcycle parts and then some more and some more... and then a motor cycle laying smashed up in the left lane, and a body laying in the turn lane.... Stopped my car and put on the flashers.... the rider was still breathing but shallow and laborious... his pulse fast and thready... The state police had arrived and then an ambulance...Left my Volvo wagon there with the flashers on in the left lane.. county sheriff's deputies were blocking the road and routing people around it all...another trooper got there and was talking to the lady from the Pontiac...
As I stood over the scene of the rider, the EMTs were doing their thing.. this thing must have been their first call fresh out of school, because they couldn't be screwing it up any worse....couldn't start an IV on the guy, or anything.... I started showing my frustration in my face.. and the Trooper who came over could see it on my face.... then he saw these two guys doing stuff even he knew was not right..... couldn't start an IV so they laid the needle on the pavement, wiped another site, further down the arm distal to the elbow and tried again....TWICE...
The trooper asked me was I an EMT... I told him I was military and was not legally allowed to touch a victim of an accident legally. He then asked me if I could save this guy's life and I said yes...he told me Washington State had Good Samaritan laws, and he was ordering me to get in there and do what I could... then he grabbed both EMTs be the collar and told them to get out of there...
I got the guy set up with an IV real quick, after cutting away clothes like his jacket, and we got his helmet off etc...they had called another ambulance, and when it got there, I had the guy ready on a gurney to be loaded up and transported.....
The trooper has seen I knew what I was doing, so he had walked over to the other sheriff's deputy who had been interviewing the lady.... when I was done, I looked in his direction, and he was madder than a hornet.. grabbed his hat off of her hood and came stomping back to me and the patient...
I asked him if he was okay, and got an angry 'hell NO!".... he paused and thanked me for what I did. and then apologized to me, about his anger..
He had asked the lady what she saw when this happened... she hold told him, she saw him coming down the road, so she pulled out to turn left...
and the guy just came up without stopping and hit her car in the fender and he and the motor cycle flipped over her hood... then told him she thought the guy on the motor cycle was supposed to stop for a car... as they had the right of way...that is why he was so pissed off and stomped off before he hit the bimbo...
Turned out the guy was a professional dirt track racer, so he had NO time to react.. I didn't see it happen, just showed up about 3 seconds after it had happened... I did go visit the guy at the hospital in Tacoma. First time I had someone thank me for saving his life...didn't really know how to feel.. I just knew I had to do it, because that was why I was taking the training I was at the time...
First people I saw dead at an accident was like 5 months or so later... that fall, heavy fog out by Puyallup, on Rt 410... Honda Civic crossed the line on a 4 lane with no median, and the fog was so thick you couldn't see 20 yds....head on with a like a 71 Plymouth full size car....cars stopping with flashers on, all over the road....no one knew what to do.... so the driver in the Plymouth was banged up... both were doing about 50 mph or so...
at least he was out of the car....
I go over to the Honda.. It was leaking fuel from the tank and a small electrical fire starting... I went over and the passenger was not breathing.. the driver was breathing but knocked out... some one ran over to see if I needed help....I touched his carotid artery, and he had a pulse.. quick breathing tho... the dash started zapping electricity... cut his seat belt.... seemed he had a neck injury....
an ambulance had shown up with a back board and were getting it ready by the ambulance.... the hair went up on the back of my neck, with a feeling something was going to get dangerous real quick... before I really knew what was happening I yelled for the other guy to get back real quick, and I instinctly jumped back and flattened.... the car was on a down hill slope on the road.... a spark flew and hit gas... then everything blew....
the flames flew over my body as I was kissing the asphalt, sinjing the hair on the back of my neck and head... I looked up and the interior of that civic was a ball of flames... the passenger was already dead, and the driver never recovered consciousness...saw the guy burn alive less than 10 yds from me... no screaming in pain.. I just remember the smell of burning flesh and hair....
nothing more me or anyone else could do...
I had people die in my arms twice when in college from car accidents.. that is why I picked the medical corps when I went into the Army for all the training I got... came out of the Army as an LPN and Paramedic in the civilian market...
that accident outside of Puyallup was the first time I had to watch someone burn to death, and that close up to it....
didn't scare me tho.. that is when I knew this is what I had signed up for... and why... didn't regret my choice at all...
