Saturday, September 13, 2008

Hit by Unexpected Sadness

Yesterday on the way home from a good day of the spa and a nice meal, my cousin and I were stopped by a man in the middle of the road waving his arms and standing over a body on the ground. We stopped to the side and noticed it was a man that had been hit by something. My cousin called 119 (that's the Korean 911) and he reported to the police that someone had been hit in the middle of the road.

My cousin wasn't able to tell the police exactly where we were because we didn't really have a good idea on our exact location. Someone else stopped in another car and gave the police the exact location using my cousin's phone.

During that time I ran over to check the body. There was about 2 pints already lost in blood before I got there and it was trickling down to the side of the road. I could tell that it was a grandfather, probably someone around 65 years old and the man standing over him told me that he had accidentally hit him a few moments ago. Judging by the blood speed I felt that it was more like 5 min before we had gotten there.

The guy didn't seem like he was being evasive or anything, but he really should have called 119 first. He had decided to call the police first for some reason. I don't know if that would have saved the man's life but it might have. I think he might have been in shock when it happened and didn't know what to do. There were no skid marks in front of the body though, so either it was a freak accident or the guy was just driving way too fast. The shoe of the guy was about 2 feet from the body but his hat was about 10 feet away. It might have blown away after the hit, I'm just going to assume that for my own sanity.

I basically saw a man die before my eyes for the first time. It really sucked. The man was turned on his side and bleeding from the side closest to the ground or from his nose, and so I couldn't try to stop the bleeding or anything. I did not want to move his spine or his head because I might damage him further. When I first got there he was breathing, but by the time the ambulance arrived he had stopped breathing. The paramedics just rolled his body over quickly and placed him on the stretcher, basically giving me the hint that there was probably no hope there.

By the end the guy probably lost almost a gallon of blood. The man who had hit him was still standing there telling the police what happened. We told the police we didn't see the actual accident and that we were going to leave. The police said that was fine. They have my cousin's phone number if for some reason they need it.

I pulled up his shirt to check for blood on the top side of his neck but didn't see anything so there was nothing I could do. I did see one of his teeth fall out of his mouth when I did that though, that was interesting... to say the least. I won't forget that picture anytime soon.

While I was checking the body I had to flag down the cars going by because they were passing by at regular speed (80km/h) even though they saw me in the middle of the road on top of a body. Crazy Asian drivers.

I felt really weird afterwards, like I wanted to cry but I didn't know why. I think the whole thing was just so sad in that I didn't know the victim and it felt like life was wasted and I couldn't do anything about it.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very sad news, Jim. I wish they could save his life.
I think the guy who hit the old man should call 119 immediately. One second might save his life.

Traffic accidents are everywhere.
The road may be more dangerous than war field. Cars are all fatal weapons.

September 13, 2008 at 10:36 PM  
Blogger momo said...

I'm sorry you had to witness that. I hope you are all right.

I know when people are scared or shocked they can do stupid things, they don't know how to handle what's going on, and sometimes the first thing that comes to mind doesn't make sense. I'm sure that's what happened to the dude that hit him...

I guess we just have to believe that the course of things that happen in the universe happen for a purpose, and that each death is not meaningless but a vital part of the story.

September 15, 2008 at 1:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dude, what a bummer.

September 15, 2008 at 11:52 PM  

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