Ugh - yesterday I saw a guy just minutes after he had been killed.

[NuclearNed]

My wife and I were driving to the University of Tennessee football game yesterday afternoon in a torrential downpour. We got within a few miles of Knoxville and decided to call it off due to weather and go to my inlaws' camper in Sevierville. We got off I40 at the Strawberry Plains exit with the intent to go under the underpass and get back on I40 east. Near the underpass there were about 4 emergency vehicles, and a whole bunch of emergency personnel running around.

Right in the middle of all the emergency vehicles was a tall black guy sprawled out on the ground face down. He wasn't moving, in spite of the fact that the road was more or less a running creek, and the rain was beating down. Also, more ominously, none of the emergency personnel were tending to him like they would if he were still alive. I didn't get a good look at the body as we drove by, mostly because I'm a little squeamish about such things and didn't want to see anything. However, in the quick glances I got in I didn't notice any blood or obvious trauma.

My best guess is that he was trying to run across the road in the heavy rain, and someone hit him. The whole weekend has felt strange ever since we saw this.

 

[manlymatt83]

 

[Ika]

 

[BrokenVisage]

Hmm

 

[her209]

Just think... had you left your house 10 minutes earlier and made the same decisions that you made, you could of been the car that hit him. Think about that!

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: her209
Just think... had you left your house 10 minutes earlier and made the same decisions that you made, you could of been the car that hit him. Think about that!

Or maybe you could have stopped, saving him.

 

[dug777]

I can't see 'Skoorbed' anywhere in that, i'm not looking hard enough?

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: dug777
I can't see 'Skoorbed' anywhere in that, i'm not looking hard enough?

Its a true story.

 

[Flyback]

Try not to let it get to you, man.

I once worked in a hospital (near the ER) for a summer job. One day I was outside the ER and the ambulance brought in a guy who was having a heart attack. They popped open the doors and he was making god awful noises (was choking on vomit or some such).

The medics gave me the kit with heart monitor stuff on it all wired up to help them carry in. They called a code on him. I went back outside and the drivers came back out a short while to load up their truck & get in order for the next call. They told me in passing that he died.

It was weird to see him alive, hear him making primal noises, and then to hear he was dead.

I had seen bodies at funerals before, but that day it struck a nerve. Lets you know how fast it can all end, and perhaps you hug your wife a little tighter and remember to not let the bull**** in life wear you down--to focus on important things (love, family, friends). Sometimes its a blessing and you don't even know it (don't dwell on the body that much, it gets you nowhere).

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Flyback
Try not to let it get to you, man.

Welcome to AT

It's weird even hearing about it second hand... For example, some months back my parents told me about one of their next door neighbors who died. She apparently just wasn't feeling good that day, bad enough that she drove to the hospital, where she died of some previously unknown heart condition. My parents had talked with her that morning...

 

[Viperoni]

I saw a truck rolled over in a ditch beside an onramp maybe 15 seconds after it happened... people were running out of their cars to help the driver.

Brought up some unpleasant memories from my own experience.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: Viperoni
I saw a truck rolled over in a ditch beside an onramp maybe 15 seconds after it happened... people were running out of their cars to help the driver.

Brought up some unpleasant memories from my own experience.

Reminds me of the time a friend's neighbor was driving some kids (his kid and some of the kid's friends) home and ended up in a car accident. One of the kid's friend got decapitated. All the kids were around 8 y.o.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Man.. one time I saw the result of a suicide-by-jumping-in-front-of-a-semi-from-an-overpass. It was not pretty. I don't think I ate for a week after that. I just remember it being dark, and being filed into a single-file line of cars as we went past the roped off lanes of highway. The medics hadn't yet finished covering up the various body parts. About six feet from my car was the head, torso, and spine, making up the single largest piece of human. The face was looking at me... eyes frozen open, mouth full of blood. The spine was resting on the concrete.

I've never been squeamish of anything until I saw that.

 

[skyking]

It's not pleasant, but a part of this life deal. I tended a crash victim who died on the way to the hospital( I had to break in to his mangled car, I watched the crash unfold in front of me), and held my dad while he died, so I am quite desensitized to death. If it helps put it in perspective, think about all the violent public death that is happening each day in other countries.

 

[Praxis1452]

My friend just told me last week. This guy was crossing the road and bam this old lady hit and killed him. "Bug on a windshield man, bug on a windshield". Yea he died too...

 

[mrrman]

thats wierd and sad

 

[moshquerade]

kinda makes you question your own mortality

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
kinda makes you question your own mortality

What's the question?

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Praxis1452

Originally posted by: moshquerade
kinda makes you question your own mortality

What's the question?

eh, i should've said "think about" not "question" i suppose.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Praxis1452

Originally posted by: moshquerade
kinda makes you question your own mortality

What's the question?

eh, i should've said "think about" not "question" i suppose.

Well you did use the word in the verb sense; in which case it stops referring to a "question". Well I thought it was clear anyway!

 

[Praxis1452]

I asked her what she was questioning and therefore that's the question now isn't it? And no I wasn't confused. I was just being a smartass. =}

 

[NuclearNed]

I've been looking for a article about this in the Knoxville newspaper's web site, but found nothing so far. It was ~10 miles outside KTown, so I wonder if the News Sentinel would even carry the story?

 

[dug777]

So were you really skoorbing us?

 

[saymyname]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed
My wife and I were driving to the University of Tennessee football game yesterday afternoon in a torrential downpour. We got within a few miles of Knoxville and decided to call it off due to weather and go to my inlaws' camper in Sevierville. We got off I40 at the Strawberry Plains exit with the intent to go under the underpass and get back on I40 east. Near the underpass there were about 4 emergency vehicles, and a whole bunch of emergency personnel running around.

Right in the middle of all the emergency vehicles was a tall black guy sprawled out on the ground face down. He wasn't moving, in spite of the fact that the road was more or less a running creek, and the rain was beating down. Also, more ominously, none of the emergency personnel were tending to him like they would if he were still alive. I didn't get a good look at the body as we drove by, mostly because I'm a little squeamish about such things and didn't want to see anything. However, in the quick glances I got in I didn't notice any blood or obvious trauma.

My best guess is that he was trying to run across the road in the heavy rain, and someone hit him. The whole weekend has felt strange ever since we saw this.

Saw a guy on a bike just moments after he got hit by a car. He was pretty bent up, his teeth scattered within a foot of his mouth, and a puddle of blood slowly growing from his head.

Not pretty.

 

[Snapster]

Having someone actually die in front of you is still worse. One person has died in front of me and it'll remain for me for the rest of my life. I will never envy what the emergency service and rescue guys have to go through, even if they are trained to deal with it and can maybe zone out of it. :beer: for them.