OPINION: A new perspective on car crashes and humanity

A new perspective on car crashes and humanity

Picture: Frances Klein

AS A journalist, I have been at the scene of quite a few car accidents. I usually arrive just after the police, paramedics and fire and rescue officers with a pen in my hand and a photographer by my side.

But on Saturday, I was heading to the coast on the Mary Valley Highway when I saw a car pulled up on the side of the road; I slowed down and that's when I saw another car on the opposite side rolled down an embankment.

It took a while to process what I was seeing, but as I stopped and got out I saw that the front of the car was twisted around a tree. A young woman, who looked to be in complete shock, was being guided away from the mangled vehicle, while another person was ringing an ambulance.

And that's when I saw that there was someone trapped in the front passenger seat of the car.

He was conscious and talking, and yelling out to his partner that he was alright.

But was he? He was trapped and the front of the car was crushed in on him.

I reassured him through the driver window that the ambulance was on its way. He wanted to ring his family, but couldn't find his phone. He called out the number to me as I dialled it from mine.

More people came to help, they were reassuring the driver of the vehicle. The minutes ticked by and the man who was trapped remained so gracious; he thanked me for using my phone, he thanked me for getting a towel from my car to keep his partner warm and he while he looked fearful he didn't complain once.

You could see how grateful he was for the tiny bit of humanity he was receiving through the broken window.  

"I'd really like to get out of here soon," he said to me, which was the closest thing to a complaint he made in the long minutes he was stuck there.

And then the police arrived, followed by the ambulance and fire and rescue service.

I stepped back, and watched the scene unfold. There were enough hands.

That's when I became a journalist again.

But I wasn't just looking at a bunch of facts I would later put to paper, I was looking at a group of people who did not know each other, but who worked together for an hour to free a man.

A man who played just as much a part in his rescue as the workers.

And I left the accident feeling part of something bigger than myself.