Good Samaritan

On my way home from work last night I saw an accident. The signal was green for my side but a red truck sped through the light in the other direction and crashed into two of the cars that had started to go. The truck was not going slow and the light had been green for a few seconds, it had not just turned green. Since there were three cars involved and they all careened different directions (all of them partially up on the curb and median) the intersection was subsequently blocked so I stopped to see if I could offer any help.

I am glad I did. The driver of the red truck had her 12-year old son with her and his mouth was busted up. He had braces and he must have hit the dashboard because the braces had cut up his mouth and they said he was fading in and out. He must have had a concussion. There were several people helping there so I went to the other car where they said another guy had been hurt.

He was laying in the grass holding his side. I talked to him and finally figured out he didn’t speak English so I stayed with him the rest of the time and helped translate what the firefighters were asking. He seemed OK except for the bruising on his side. I am sure he will be in pain today though and he might have even cracked a rib but he looked like he would be OK. I told him to keep his head straight (per the firefighter’s instructions) and told them how old he was (28). I also asked the firefighters to tell me what hospital they were taking him to so I could tell his buddies who were calling his family (they had been nearby in a separate car when the accident happened and none of them spoke English). The driver of the 3rd car was fine and was also a coworker of the guy I was helping.

In the end, two ladder trucks came, one policeman, two ambulances to take each injured person away and three tow trucks (for each vehicle) came. The cars were all totaled, all the airbags had deployed and if the two cars that had been hit had had passengers, those passengers would have been seriously injured (I heard the firefighters talk about that). It was all over and cleared in about 30 minutes – the firetrucks got there about 5 minutes after I walked up and everything was very efficient. I was impressed!

I am glad it was not worse and I am glad I was able to help. Too often we try to stay out of someone else’s trouble but it was the least I could do and I hope I made that gentleman a little more comfortable.