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What have you witnessed that shook you up?

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I didn't watch the attack go down, but seeing my stepdad pull up in his truck and slowly make his way into the house after being mauled by a bear really stuck with me.

I witnessed a particularly nasty street fight in New Orleans once. Several people involved and one unlucky guy got stabbed or hit with something and collapsed, then another assailant launched a kick that sandwiched the guys head between the curb and his boot. Guys mouth and face were pulverized. The visual and sound it produced still make me grimace when I think of it.


Saw the aftermath of a bad car wreck, and one of the dead bodies that had been pulled a short distance from the wreckage was a kid that I had some classed with. I felt bad as the last time I had seen him before that I had poked fun at him with some mean phrase and it hit home. Wasn't like we were best buds, but I regret my words and his loss and still think about it. 🙁
 
Watching my daughters stomach being pumped...

Body in the body bag on the side of the highway (cops left it there deliberately...probably from DYI/Speeding to send people message....NYC I tell ya)

Crossing the street with another guy next to me. I see a car about 100 ft down, looks like it's slowing down. We both start crossing > something told me to look again half way thru the road....she is not slowing down AT ALL. Guy doesn't look > gets hit full speed > flies 30ft down the road (old lady couldn't see in the dark I guess).
 
DarkVision said:
why do drowned victims have spots all over their body? i noticed one at a funeral
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Blood vessels popping as they strain for air/oxygen. My best guess at least. Next time I see the coroner at work I'll ask though.

Also, I've seen alot. Too many dead bodies and too many of them being kids.
 
Probably the wild fires FL had in 1998, our company uses several types of alcohol, as the fire approached we had to get it out of it's shed and load it on a truck, 17 pallets worth. By the time I loaded the last pallet and headed back through the warehouse the power went out, as I exited the building on a forklift running "WFO" I saw dust devils and puck-sized chunks of embers flying around, plus a rumbling sound all caused by the air the fire was consuming, finally making my way to the front of the facility a fire truck pulled up, "you should have been outta here an hour ago" he says...yikes!, I booked it to my car and left, as I went up US RT1 the smoke was insane, I saw some flames shoot across the road in my rearview mirror where I had just been, 3 businesses around ours got hit I got home not knowing if I still had a job, I had just gone from a temp to hire only two weeks before!, shit! ..2 more firetrucks arrived after I left and they got serious behind our building and 2 brave employees stayed and started up our fire equipment (2 monstrous storage tanks, sprinkler system powered by a V6 diesel and started spraying everything, the building was saved..
 
When I was about 9 we were on vacation at Dayton Beach. There were a bunch of planes towing banners; one of them was an old biplane, which I thought was pretty neat so I would watch for it every time it came by. On one of the passes it passed another plane, and its banner got caught up in the biplanes prop. The biplane pretty much went straight down into the water maybe a couple hundred yards from shore, right in front of where we were set up.
 
endlessmike said:
When I was about 9 we were on vacation at Dayton Beach. There were a bunch of planes towing banners; one of them was an old biplane, which I thought was pretty neat so I would watch for it every time it came by. On one of the passes it passed another plane, and its banner got caught up in the biplanes prop. The biplane pretty much went straight down into the water maybe a couple hundred yards from shore, right in front of where we were set up.
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I live in S Datytona, yea, there's been several incidents with tow planes over the years, I used to work with a guy who did it part time, he wound up crashing in the river trying to beat a storm home and had several broken bones, basically those planes engines are working their ass off and flying at low altitude you have very little time to react to anything, My friend got caught in a micro-burst, dropped his banner but it was too late, he wound up crashing..
 
A lot of stuff back when I was living in Israel. Being at a suicide bombing scene a few minutes after it exploded and seeing body parts scattered everywhere was probably the worst. Also being shot at sucked.

One thing that had a bigger effect on my than I realized at the time was when I discovered the wife of a good friend cheating with a loser dude I know.
 
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BUTCH1 said:
Probably the wild fires FL had in 1998, our company uses several types of alcohol, as the fire approached we had to get it out of it's shed and load it on a truck, 17 pallets worth. By the time I loaded the last pallet and headed back through the warehouse the power went out, as I exited the building on a forklift running "WFO" I saw dust devils and puck-sized chunks of embers flying around, plus a rumbling sound all caused by the air the fire was consuming, finally making my way to the front of the facility a fire truck pulled up, "you should have been outta here an hour ago" he says...yikes!, I booked it to my car and left, as I went up US RT1 the smoke was insane, I saw some flames shoot across the road in my rearview mirror where I had just been, 3 businesses around ours got hit I got home not knowing if I still had a job, I had just gone from a temp to hire only two weeks before!, shit! ..2 more firetrucks arrived after I left and they got serious behind our building and 2 brave employees stayed and started up our fire equipment (2 monstrous storage tanks, sprinkler system powered by a V6 diesel and started spraying everything, the building was saved..
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Those guys are badass then, those fires are scarey as shit!

Same year other side of the state, my gf at the time and I were heading somewhere and ended up being the very last car in a group allowed to traverse a road they were about to close due to the oncoming fires.
Cop told escorting traffic around a fire crew told us "Gonna let you pass, but don't spare the horses!"

A couple minutes later the wind picks up more and suddenly the fire is right there, not 40yds from the edge of the road. Could not believe the heat that was coming through the door and frame, we thought her Honda Del Sol was going to melt! Got clear in time, remember being amazed at how hot her tires were, and that was after being clear for a couple miles.
 
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I do some defense work for our local transit authority, and once responded to the scene of a fatal light rail accident. An elderly woman had started to lose her bearing while standing on the platform, and as a train was pulling out she leaned over toward the side of the train. She somehow managed to fall directly between two cars, and as the train pulled away she was spun, at about her waist, between the train and the platform, cutting her in half. Ugh.
 
I witness a truck being rolled a few times on a paved country road in my rear view mirror. When i first saw it, it was like slow motion. Then i thought i had caused it by pulling out in front of them or something. But it was too far away for me to have been the cause. It wasa Ford Ranger that was hauling all kinds of crap its its bed (grill, cooler, tool, junk etc) which was being flung all over the road way. The passanger was coming out of the window while it was rolling and when it finally came to rest on its side the back of his head slammed very hard on the pavement.

We turned around and my wife called 911 and surprisingly they were there very fast as well as lots of local volunteer fire fighters and nurses etc. We were first back to the scene but was only about a minute until a nurse happened upon it. Their was a crotch rocket motocycle all broken up on the road and we assumed it was also in the bed of the truch and just wreckage from the back of the truck. Nope...

Eventually we figured out that their was a bike rider somewhere. Apparently the accident was caused by the motorcycle flying through the intersection (he had the stop signs) and t-boned the truck and put them into the culvert and made them flip and roll. Bike rider was found dead about 15 yards off the side of the road. He had flipped over the truck and into a bobwire fence with high brush so you couldnt see him until you were upon him. Wasnt pretty.

The driver of the truck was able to get out by himself. Surprisingly wasnt too badly hurt. Some blood and scratches and very dizzy and out of it. His passanger who had hit his head very hard was very messed up. He was coughing up blood and attempting to get up but the nurse made him stay on his side until the helicopoter came to get him. He died later at the hospitol from his head would according to the news report we found the next day.

But anyways it was my first wreck witnessed in my rear view mirror. Shook me up pretty bad for a few weeks thinking man something like that could happen to me or anyone at anytime. Stupid bike rider flying through the stops and into a lane that had the right of way. He must have been hauling with how far he was thrown.
 
kage69 said:
Those guys are badass then, those fires are scarey as shit!

Same year other side of the state, my gf at the time and I were heading somewhere and ended up being the very last car in a group allowed to traverse a road they were about to close due to the oncoming fires.
Cop told escorting traffic around a fire crew told us "Gonna let you pass, but don't spare the horses!"

A couple minutes later the wind picks up more and suddenly the fire is right there, not 40yds from the edge of the road. Could not believe the heat that was coming through the door and frame, we thought her Honda Del Sol was going to melt! Got clear in time, remember being amazed at how hot her tires were, and that was after being clear for a couple miles.
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The winter preceding was unusually warm and rainy then in mid Jan stopped and not a drop for months, all the vegetation was now primed and ready, it was routine for highway to be closed at a moments notice, I-95, I-4 were closed a lot during that time. The deal at work had to do with the wind as well, it changed direction that day and was 15-20 from the west, fires they thought they had somewhat "contained" got out of control and started marching to the coast, scary, scary time for FL in '98..
 
I've been to three rodeos, 6 circuses, two worlds' fairs, a goat roping and a donkey show...and I ain't never seen NOTHIN like this...😱
 
amdhunter said:
I'm immune to acts of violence. I've seen 5 murders this year alone (2 in front of my window) and each and every time I thought to myself...

Good for those worthless pieces of shit.
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You should move out of the shitty, welfare riddled tenement you obviously live in.

Oh, and probably 3 guys 1 hammer.
 
It was when I was about 10-11. A big group of us were out at some sand dunes and some kid dug a whole on the side of one of them. Well, it fell apart with him inside of it and it took all the guys around a good 10 minutes to dig him out. Ive never seen a body that shade of blue before. CPR was done but dont really know if he lived or not since they sent all of us kids away.
 
Only 2 things ever really "shook" me, they both happened within 12 months.

1st Was waking up in hospital in the middle of the night after being unconcious for 3-4 days after surgery and noticing a newspaper next to my bed detailing the events of 911. I really wasn't with it and was high as a kite, I remember sitting there for hours unable to move thinking it must have been some sort of joke or that I was having some sort of weird dream. It was the most incredibly emotional time I can ever recall which I can only imagine was heighted by whatever painkillers I was on.

The second was on a building site that was part of a hospital complex (not the same one), I was pricing up some work and noticed that some contractors had removed the safety barriers from the stairwell so they could start fitting the hand rails later that day.
I had already reported this to the site manager and he came and put the barriers back but they weren't fixed anymore. Ten minutes later a guy turned up to measure/price the suspended ceilings upstairs, I told him he wasn't allowed up there but he said he didn't have time to wait or come back later, he moved the barriers and went up to the first floor then used another staircase to go up to the second floor (I think that would be the third floor in America). As the stair slab had only been put in on this particular staircase from the ground to the first floor there was basically a 15-35ft drop depending if you fell and hit the stairs or managed to fall inbetween them.
I was no more than 6 feet from him as he came down head first the whole 35ft, apparently he had walked backwards straight off the floor slab whist measuring an area. Hard hats don't really do a great deal when you land head first like that and it was immediatly obvious that he had broken his neck and was dead. We managed to get an ambulance there in what seemed like less than a minute as the A+E department was litterally 20 meters outside the building we were in but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Apparently the site manager did a runner the next day as he was ultimatly liable for prosecution (I never did find out if they got him but one would presume so) and there was talk about me having to testify in court but I obviously wasn't required as I never heard anything about it again.
I figure I could have insisted that this guy didn't go up there or reported it straight away to the site manager and mabye he would still be alive. Can't say I didn't give him fair warning though. I still think about him sometimes, I remember seeing his wedding ring before they put his body in the ambulance.
 
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I guess I live a sheltered life. I haven't witnessed any death, dismemberment, or other maiming. I don't watch any of the gore videos on the interweb because I find them disturbing.
 
I saw a car accident happen right next to me on a busy interstate in Austin, TX earlier this year. It wasn't gruesome, but it was scary as everyone wrecked all over the place.
 
Crotch rocket tried to cut between me and the car in the next lane that was slightly behind me. His handle bars caught my c-pillar and he went down. Pretty surreal watching a guy in t-shirt and shorts sliding down the freeway at 65mph right next to my door.

Road rash was pretty bad. His helmet saved his ass, well technically his head. Glad about 5 people stopped to not only help him but also let police know it wasn't my fault.
 
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