I came upon a serious car accident recently. A car had lost control on the highway and been struck broadside by a large oncoming motorhome. The motorhome ended up 100 feet off the road leaving behind a twisted piece of metal that was once a car. Enough people had gathered so that I thought the situation was well in hand. I am glad I stopped because it was not.
I created a list of things I have learned by experiencing several of these situations. What is interesting about the list is that it transcends the emergency. Life is just one long crisis. A car accident compresses time and puts a finer point on the consequences of your actions, but it is just a microcosm of life. These points are relevant in any situation.
- Don’t Panic: Whether you are trying to recall your first aid training or have just been informed by your kid’s teacher that he eats bugs, a lot of bugs, remember, don’t panic. Stop and take a deep breath. Do the best you can. You and everyone else will have to make do with that.
- Plan Ahead: You can not plan for everything but that is no excuse to plan for nothing. Buy a First Aid Kit for your home and car. Put a little money aside. Wear your seatbelt. Don’t walk down dark alleys. Buy tenant’s insurance. A little forethought can go a long way when something unexpected happens.
- Take Responsibility: Assuming any situation is being handled properly is a bad plan. Committees accomplish nothing worthwhile. There needs to be someone running the show. Until you see it being done better, that someone is you.
- Do Something: Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim…. It is tempting to do nothing to avoid doing something wrong. Life favors the brave. Try help. Try move forward. Try accomplish something. If you can’t think of anything big, do something little. If you can’t think of anything little, get out of the way, you are a spectator.
- Empathize and Encourage: It is going to be OK. There are few words quite so welcome. It’s not relevant if it turns out not to be true. It does not detract from the comfort you can provide by simply holding someone’s hand and telling them, “I am here to help”.
- Try Learn Something: You won’t get it right the first time. Spend a little time beating yourself up over mistakes, and then let it go. No one is perfect. Thankfully, life is a series of do-overs. Try do better next time.
I came up with this list well after the fact of course. It is my attempt to emphasize the last point on it. At the actual accident scene, I felt useless. I performed no heroic acts. There was nothing my simple training equipped me to fix, but I did the best I could, which is better than being a spectator.
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Details of the accident were not relevant to the article I wrote above, but the gruesome points are compelling on their own. So for all those rubber neckers here they are:
The accident was very serious. To check the woman for injuries I was able to stand behind the driver’s seat in the space the back of her car once occupied. She looked in rough shape but not compared to the scope of the debris and wreckage. She was bleeding from several locations, but not badly. She was in shock and incoherent but her disjointed speech still conveyed pain and shock. I do not think she was absorbing much of what I was telling her. I never found out her fate nor the condition of the people in the motorhome. The paramedics arrived in about 5-10 minutes (this was a rural highway). I left after they arrived.
I never checked on the motorhome, which was something that I did not think of until later. Once I assessed the woman in the car and realized there was little I could do for her, I should have had someone else keep her company while I went to the motorhome. I appeared to be the only one with a first aid kit, and that at least would have been of use there.
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