Passing this along to you all and hopefully it will adjust your seat belt wearing tendencies if you're not always buckled in. I was commuting to work (in my car - I woke up late, it was cold, and I didn't have time to bundle up) on a 4 lane - 2 lanes each way - road, Route 9 for those in the Boston area. A car 3 in front of me started to act erratically, first slowing way down, then cutting off the car in the lane to the right, then gunning it. He lost control and hit the guardrail on the right and pinballed back and hit the center guardrail head-on.
The cars in front of me slowed but kept going. When I reached the car there was no movement inside and I pulled over to see if I could help. When I got around to the other side of the car I saw that the driver's head was outside the passenger window, face down, and bleeding down the door. Not wanting to move him, I immediately started flagging all the cars coming by to roll down their windows and ask if they were doctors or nurses.
30 seconds later an off duty fireman ran up and had me and a couple other guys try to stabilize his back and neck - basically holding him up while opening the door, as the fireman was afraid that the door was blocking his airway. I was in charge of holding his chin and opening the door while the other guys held his shoulders (he was a big guy in his 60s). Finally the EMTs arrived and took over. I gave my recollection of the incident to a cop and was told that I could go. An hour later the police officer called my to get some more details and told me that the man had passed away.
He also said it was totally preventable if he was wearing his seat belt.
That said, my first reaction was that the way the car was acting before the accident was that the driver was having a heart attack or seizure, I don't know. He was breathing while we were first there, but did let out one of those deep exhales just before the EMTs arrived and didn't seem to be breathing afterwards.
I'm kinda shaken up here at work, but way more importantly, I feel a very deep sorrow for this guy's family. For you EMTs, fireman, police officers, doctors and trauma nurses (and military), I don't know how you do it every day.
RIP, sir.
