Driving past accidents

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2003
Posts
16,447
Location
Norwich
Well coming home from a random trip to the 4th nearest supermarket (wanted to stretch the cars legs a bit) just getting towards the village in which I live and as I come around the corner I'm greeted by the sight of a van on its side in the road :eek:

Now I assume this had only just happened as there was no one else on scene and the road at this time of day is fairly busy, but amazingly the 4 cars infront just edged round it and carried on :mad: I pulled past and stopped as did the two cars behind me. One guy went over to check the people inside, the other got straight on the blower and I thought the most use I could be was to slow the traffic coming the other way as it was on a blind bend and the road was greasy. After I'd stopped a few cars and therefore stopped the likely hood of someone flying round into the carnage I went back over.

I helped the guys get out, luckily of the three of them only the driver was injured with what I suspect was a broken or fractured arm as it was already starting to swell a bit. We kicked all the stuff that flew out as it went over to the side of the road and I helped get the van back on its wheels to leave at least one lane clear. At that point someone said about getting some of the traffic moving so that the police and ambulance who were on-route could get there easier. As my car was at the front of the queue I thought it was probably best that I just cleared off so I checked to see if anyone else was staying (a couple were and pulled up onto the curb behind the van) and then shot off.

Sorry for the rambly post it was just a bit of a "WTF" as I came around the corner and wanted to share!

The main reason for my post though was how on earth could people pull up to the van, look inside (it was clear people were in there) then just drive off :mad: I wouldn't wish it on anyone but if the tables were turned wouldn't they want people to stop for them :confused:


Edit- thats the second time in 2 days I've come round a bend to find an obstruction in the road. Yeaterday it was half a tree off a blind bend. I can confirm the brakes on the Octy are in full working order thats for sure :p
 
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I can see where your coming from and if its obviously an accident I will stop but I can also understand why people wouldnt stop.

With how quickly society and law are going down hill I wouldnt be half surprised to be mugged and my car stolen :p

But congrats on helping them :)
 
If there is no-one else on scene then yes I will (and have in the past) stop, however if its blatently obvious I am either not needed (someone else on the scene/accident not exactly a bad one), or can do nothing to help I will drive on.
 
Oh I agree with that. I'm crap in situations like that but I couldn't have driven on as no one else had stopped.

It can soon swing the other way though. Just before I left there were about 8 people there. As soon as I wasn't needed I was off, too many cooks and all that.

I just can't get my head around the mentality of someone who would slow down, have a gawp through the window, see that there were people in there then bugger off :rolleyes: Then again, having said that I've told Jane that if she spots an accident, phone it in when its safe to do so and leave it at that if she doesn't feel confident or happy about the situation.
 
Unless I actually witness the accident, or, obviously someone is injured without help, or, the roads blocked by the carnage(!), I'm past & away. - Speaking from a truckers point of view, a 53ft long vehicle isn't the greatest of help stopped at an accident scene!

Harsh perhaps, but if I did stop for every accident I witness in a given month, I'd have one hell of a lot of forms to fill in which I detest!

I could cheerfully shoot rubber necker's on motorways! :mad:
 
i witnessed a nasty accident once. couldnt help but stop, i couldnt leave a guy laying in the road, it was horrible. im the sorta motorist that will try n tell someone if they have a flat-ish tyre or a buckled wheel... but people round here are so scared of talking they rarely wanna hear it when youre telling them their car is dangerous and they should check it out
 
Not quite on topic but it reminds me of about 2 years ago when I was just driving round a fairly sharp corner quite slowly and completely out of the blue was an elderly woman lying in the middle of the road waving her arms in the air frantically and her wheel chair on the road by her!!

It'll sound stupid but it happened in such a flash and was so unexpected i actually drove on for a couple of seconds past her before it even registered. Its hard to explain without doing a really bad picture of the road :p but there was so little time to react and for it to register in my head as it wasn't the sort of place you'd normally expect anybody to even be.

I parked up about 30 meters further on and ran back pretty quickly to help up/call an ambulance etc but i can only imagine how i'd have felt if the next car (there wasn't one fortunately) to come around that corner had caught her and I was being too dopey to immediately stop and block the road! Its the sort of corner where a lot of people absolutely belt it around too.

It turns out she was about 65-70yrs old in a wheelchair going along a VERY narrow path beside the road and basically the wheelchair just fell on its side straight into the road chucking her in the middle of the road. She was ok fortunately and was just very shaken up but its taught me to totally expect the unexpected!
 
This seems to me the mentallity of car drivers etc.

I drive cars and ride motorcycles and love the fact that other motorcyclists look out for each other. Whereas car drivers etc could'nt give two hoots:mad:

Was riding upto the "cat and fiddle" the other night and sheep were on the side of the road and so as i passed i was waving other bikers to let them know of the danger ahead. Not once would a car driver have alerted other drivers!

Bikers Unite:p

Cheers :)
 
I came of my bike a one time where it ended up in the middle of an NSL country road.

The bike was splattered all over the road with plastic etc all over the place. Did anyone during the rush hour stop? Nope! Even while I was trying to pick the bloody thing up in the middle of the road people were coming off the bend and swinging into oncoming traffic without a care. By about the 10th car I started throwing bits at the cars, I was so angry and they still didn't stop. Luckily I wasn't far from, home in the first place.
 
If you are the first on the scene its illigle not to stop down here so you better hope no one gets your number plate details if you dont stop
 
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