A bit of an adventure

Last night I was woken from deep sleep at around 4.00 am by the sound of screeching tires and a loud crash. As I woke I wasn't sure whether I had dreamt the noise or not but as we live on a fast road near a dangerous junction I thought I had better check.

Having put some clothes on I took a look outside and there in the dark, mist and rain was the back end of a sports car with the front buried in a tree and the driver moaning and calling "Someone help" "Get me out of here". I made a quick 999 call then grabbed an old jacket and a torch and ran over to get a better look. There was this young lad, barely conscious with a fair bit of blood on him, both air bags having gone off and the whole of the front end of his Porsche crumpled.

My first thought was that there was a hell of a strong smell of petrol and I needed to get him out of the car as fast as possible. I was wary of moving him in case he was badly injured but reckoned if the car went up he was going to get a lot worse. I had to haul the damaged door open and then tried to lift him. Initially he seemed in too much pain and I was worried that his legs may have been damaged so i stopped. By this time my wife had joined us with a fire extinguisher and my first thought was to get her to keep back in case the car exploded and the kids lost both their parents right outside their front door!

The driver was becoming a bit more active by this time and his legs were obviously OK so with his help I was able to pull him from the car and sit him on the edge of the road. He was talking about his daughter and appeared worried that she had been with him so I did a quick scan around with my torch but there was no sign of any other passengers. The driver soon got on his feet and was agitated and wanting to walk away. A neighbour had now joined us by this time and we both kept persuading him to stay where he was until the ambulance arrived. He started walking along the road and we were following him, keeping him safe when at last the police arrived and moments later an ambulance.

I won't go into detail about the subsequent conversations with the police but we soon headed back to the house and tried to get some more sleep. By the time we got up again the car had gone and the only sign of what had happened was the damage to the tree.

Looking back it all seems a bit dream like and has left me feeling tired and unsettled. I may never get to know how he is or the full story as to what happened but at least he walked away in one piece.

Comments

[ourman]

wow - impressive. I think you were more brave than I might have been in that situation.

It's strange when things happen that are out of the ordinary in the middle of the night.

Not so dramatic, but when I was living in Nicaragua, on my second day there - a brass band marched past my house playing their instruments at 3am.

It was part of the Easter tradition that I knew nothing about. It woke me with a start and I rubbed my eyes as I watched them go by.

I then fell back to sleep.

I only remembered they had been there several days later - even then I had to check with someone else that I hadn't dreamt it.

You might never know what happened to the guy, then again, check the local paper. In my days we had to make our routine calls to the emergency services every couple of hours - and even the smallest incidents made it into the paper.

You never know - he might even swing by to say thanks when he's fully recovered.

[Euan Semple]

Don't know about "brave". The instinct to pretend it hadn't happened and go back to bed was very strong but you can't can you.

Thanks for the tip about the local news as I do want to find out if he is OK.

[Roger Wilmut]

Doubtless your BBC training helped you not to panic, just to push that sort of feelings to the back and get on with dealing with it. A bit more stressful than a Greek transmission though... well done.

[mark]

Nice one Euan, and absolutly the right decision to get him out due to the potential fire hazard. By the sound of his aggitated state - I'd suggest you may get a call from the police asking for a statement to "help them with their enquiries".
The adrenaline in your body after such incidents is alway difficult to deal with, your body has just dumped a load of nice stuff into your brain and then you don't need it but your brain and body don't care and you feel restless and out of sorts usually for a good few hours after, then the lack of sleep does not help too......

[Mary Anne Davis]

wow is right. Thanks for sharing here. Hope he is OK.

[Geoff Brown]

Moments like these are worth capturing in words right away. I could feel the pressure and chaos as I read your post. Took me back to a horrific accident where I was first on the scene. It is now like a dream that happened long ago. I too got someone free from a car which minutes later did catch on fire.

[Lucy Hooberman]

you did an amazing thing! I think you will hear about how he is doing from him or the police. I had a different but strange incident in Wood Lane when a guy running across the road to catch a bus literally ran onto my car bonnet and over the top of the car I was driving. The noise was terrible. All sorts of scenarios ran through my head. He came from nowhere but was it my fault? Luckily there were lots and lots of witnesses who came forward to describe what happened that put me in the clear - but no matter how friendly the police were when they came and how well it was handled, which it was, I felt terrible and wondered how I would ever find out about the guy. Someone even offered to follow me home to make sure I was OK. I wondered about it all for a long time and then the police did get in touch. They gave me a full report and wanted to know if I wanted to visit him in hospital if it might make me feel better. Anyway..point being you will wonder. And possibly the police will call you or you will call the police to find out.

[Euan Semple]

Thanks all for your comments and sorry for the delay in responding but I have been on holiday the last week.