Distubing commute

[rubytue]

I just missed a terrible accident. I was in the left lane, I saw the car pulling to the right shoulder and the van stopped in the middle right lane. Then the guy in front of me pulled to the left shoulder (leaving his car but sticking out into the lane) and jumped out (eta - to go help with the accident on the right side of the road). Needless to say I was stopped, but I continued to stay stopped blocking traffic while he ran across 4 lanes of traffic.

I looked over to see why he was running to the right side of the road, and I saw a guy laying in the travel lane! He was moving a bit. People (including the guy in front of me) were jumping out to help. I was still stopped b/c the car butt was in front of me, so I picked up my cell phone and called 911.

The passenger in the car in front of me saw they car butt was in the road, so she moved the car then grabbed her cell phone, but by that time I was already on the phone with them.

Man that was disturbing. People where jumping out to help all over the place. Its such a weird thing. Your instinct it to help, but rationally, calling 911 was the most effective thing for me to do. I don't know first aid and I just would have been in the way.

I'm 90% sure I was the first call. I tried to report I was "On 95 north just south of the ICC." After getting the details, the operator confirm "95 South?" and I said "No, 95 North. Near the ICC interchange." I turned on the local traffic report 6 minutes later and the traffic guy said "... although the initial dispatch said south."

If I ever have to do this again, I hope I can remember not to use north and south in the same sentence.

I wish there was some way to find out if the guy is OK.

[dr.girlfriend]

Scary! I don't get what happened, though. The guy pulled over and got out of his car, and fell in the lane of traffic? Or someone was on foot, got hit, and everyone pulled over to avoid hitting him and help?

I know what you mean about directions. I witnessed a crime (someone robbed a blind lady!) and I was giving my police report. I said, "I was walking East on the south side of Walnut Street" and the cop was like, "Walnut runs East/West." I was like, "Yes, and I was walking East, but there are two sides of the street, and I was on the South side while the victim of the robbery was on the Northeast corner of the same intersection..." It made perfect sense to me but it took me drawing it out for him to get what I was saying.

[rubytue]

Oh, sorry...

I think the guy in front of me was a off duty paramedic or something. He had the look about him I've seen in my friends who are vollies. The accident (and male laying on the road) was on the right. This guy was just getting out to help.

[cahabalily]

Omg I can't imagine. I take the parkway because 95 can be such a crazy mess

[cahabalily]

How did a pedestrian end up in the travel lane, I wonder....

[rubytue]

I couldn't tell if he was ejected or what. It looked like a car and a minivan collided. Or perhaps the minivan was stopped in the right center lane and the car came by on the right and hit someone getting out of the car? I couldn't figure it out. I kept telling 911 I didn't see the accident, don't know what happened, just that there is a guy laying in the travel lanes and people are jumping out to help.

[rubytue]

This was I-95 north of DC. It's the equivalent of 6 normal lanes wide. 4 of them are travel lanes (where you drive) and 2 very wide shoulders. The traffic reports always refer to travel lanes, so I was thinking it was a common term.

Oh, and the 2 lanes in the middle are right center and left center. Makes it kind of confusing until you learn the lingo.

I was so shaken up I needed to get that out. But I'm a bit better now. Still would like to know if the guy is going to be ok

[ellipses84]

You did exactly what needed to be done, so don't second guess yourself! I've called 911 often for various emergencies and you will always think of something you could have done differently. You could probably call the non-emergency police number and ask about the guy of you are worried.

[Deleted]

Glad you are okay and you did the right thing! I had a similar incident a few months ago when I stopped because there was a girl lying on the freeway. I thought she had jumped from the bridge but it turns out that she was so drunk that she fell off a guy's bike. Luckily, he had slowed down before she fell. You can check the local news tomorrow for more info.

[rubytue]

Aug 28, 2012 21:56:50 GMT -5 @246baje said:

Thanks for clarifying! It may be a common term but I haven't run across it before.

It's probably a common term only if you live by DC traffic reports. Traffics and weather, together on the 8s.

*sigh* 32 miles each way, twice a day. I get way to use to it and forget everyone isnt in my brain.

[audry80]

So scary. My guess was that he was in the car that was in the accident. I have been first on the scene for a couple of accidents and the people hurt seem to have a natural reaction to get out of the car and lay down. I hope everyone is ok.

[M]

Yikes! I think you did the right thing simply calling 911.

About a year ago, H and I were on 95 in FL heading north from Miami. It was about midnight and the road was clear. We saw a couple of round lights twirling across the interstate ahead of us so H slowed down. When we got to there, debris was everywhere on the road and H slammed on the brakes. The lights were the of headlights of a pickup truck that was flipping...about 4-5 times. We pulled over to dial 911. I started to open the door and a bunch of cars came serving all over the road trying to avoid the debris and nearly rear ends us several times. So we had to leave.

Turns out the guy was about 23 y.o. and had fallen asleep. He jerked the wheel back when he drove off the right side of the road and woke up. It caused him to flip all the way across the road to the other side. He was thrown out of the car and died instantly.

[aurora]

Sounds very disturbing! I find it's definitely helpful to talk things through when I witness something disturbing like that. I'm glad you're OK.