Mar. 8th, 2008

kragore: (Default)
So, a question.

I was trucking home this evening from spending a lovely evening chatting with some old friends. It was about midnight when I was coming up 495 N.
It has been raining hard out, and I notice headlights pointing at me in the wrong direction. Then I notice car # two, about 20' off the road *up* in a ditch. I have no idea how he got there.
My first instinct was to pull over and see if everyone was all right BUT:
a) it was midnight
b) it was pouring out
c) I'm a single female
d) I'm going 65 on the highway. By the time i'd be able to pull over, I'd be beyond the next exit, and I'm not walking back down the highway in the dark
e) I could see people milling about.

So, I called 911. I calmly explained who I was, and where the nature of the accident was. They patch my through to the State Police, to whom I repeat myself. The Trooper states (somewhat gruffly, it was midnight) that someone was enroute. I thank him and say goodnight.

Is there any better way to handle this? I mean, everyone and their cousin has a bloody cell phone, but there's always a few who don't. Should I have called? Should I have call someone other than 911?

Just made me think.
- k.
kragore: (Default)
Thank you all, for your pats on the back.
No, I wasn't going to do something brave and dumb. People get paid to do that.
Yes, I realize there was little else I could do.
Yes, I have a hands-free headset, and I ALWAYS were my seatbelt. :)

I have pulled over for other accidents, during the day. Mostly minor things, where I've seen someone slide off the highway or something, and knowing how rattling that can be, I just make sure everyone's ok, and offer to follow them for an exit to make sure nothing falls off their car, having grown up on cars where one minor accident could send it into a tailspin of shedding parts.
The one exception being once when the housemate and I happened upon a relatively bad scene seconds after it had happened, but the housemate was trained as a first-responder.

I always feel nervous about calling 911 (good training as a child, I guess.) This because I wasn't a primary in the accident, nor could I assess how bad it was while moving from the road, so I didn't know if it warranted a call to 911 (ie, the stateys.) I wanted to make sure someone had been notified, knowing they likely already had, but wanting to make sure.

I get to thinking that if everyone thinks everyone else called, and no one calls, some poor bugger's going to be sitting in a ditch all night.
- k.

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