Borla

I was leaving work yesterday a couple of minutes after 4PM. I was facing west and stopped at a four way intersection where I had a red light, there was about three cars in front of me at the light. Each direction at the light had one lane plus one lefthand turn lane, I was in the lane that was going to go straight west. I look down because my phone went off when I hear a BAM!!! and look up to see a Lincoln Town Car and a Ford Ranger spinning through the intersection, pieces going everywhere. Everyone just sits there, so I jump out of my car. I see that the guy right behind me gets out of his too, and he's dialing his cell phone. I was in the process of dialing 911 myself, but I ask him if he is as we jog over there. He says that he is calling the dispatch directly, as he works for the city. I shove my cell phone in my pocket and we each head to the cars, he to the Ranger, me to the Lincoln.

The Lincoln had been coming from the north at about 50-60mph. The Ranger was facing east in the lefthand turn lane, and was making his turn to the north when the Lincoln blew the red light and ran into him full speed. The truck was spun a little over 360* and pushed 30-40' back, the Lincoln had spun around and ended up hitting the car stopped at the red light facing north, but didn't hit it very hard. By the time I'd ran over there a girl about 20-22 years old had jumped out of that car and ran over to the driver's door of the Lincoln. As I get there I ask her if she is ok, and she says she is fine, just freaked out, and can't get the door open. I grab the door and force it open. The driver was an older woman, maybe late 60's. She was buckled up, but I immediately noticed her airbags had failed to deploy. She was buckled up though, and there were no visible injuries, and the car was off with no signs of fire or anything like that. I asked where she hurt, and she said her chest. I asked her if she had hit her head, she said she thought so, but I couldn't see any obvious cuts or marks. I told her to just stay still and that the ambulance would be here in a minute. She was mumbling that she had the green light (which she didn't). I left the girl with her and went to check on the other guy. He had gotten out of his truck, and the guy who worked for the city was talking to him. He was maybe 50-55 years old, and was obviously shaken up. He said his chest hurt, and I can believe it, as much of a tangled mess his truck was. We were only two blocks from the police station, so by this time officers were showing up. I stayed out of the way of the first 2-3 that showed up, and finally walked up to one of the later arriving ones. Myself and the city worker told him what we saw, gave our information, and then I left. I don't think any of the people were seriously hurt, but it'll be interesting to see whether I get a call or not.

I honestly couldn't believe the amount of people who just froze when the accident happened. There were at LEAST 8-10 cars stopped at the intersection when it happened. It was a very violent accident, hard enough that both cars were obviously totalled, and spun around 360*. Yet the only two people to get out were me and the other guy, who had been just behind me. Everyone else just stayed in their cars (except the girl and man who were actually in the accident), seemingly in disbelief or shock. I guess that's just not me. I immediately felt responsible to at least assess the situation to see if I could do SOMETHING. I've had enough first aid training (used to be Red Cross certified, but I've let it lapse) to know that the older woman was better off not moving around because of possible neck/back injuries, or even a risk of fainting, until better trained people were there. It just seems odd to me that out of the 10-20 other witnesses, only two of us moved into action.

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Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde!!!!