Toecutter
What would DoG do?
For the past two years, almost every time I went to work, I would see this old guy riding a recumbent bicycle down the road, eastbound in the morning. Sometimes we would exchange a wave. The guy even affixed a windscreen to the thing for inclement and cold weather. I never knew who he was or where he was going, but he had to ride at least 30 miles a day to get from the bedroom community I worked in to the city where he was headed.
Well, I finally met him this morning, just after 7:00 am. The tones went off, and we were racing to a reported vehicle accident. The mobile data display terminal updated that it was a vehicle vs. bicycle. My captain said "I hope it's not the old guy". We all knew of him.
We arrived to see three people crouched around a gray-haired, motionless body, and his recumbent bike laying a few feet away, seemingly unscathed. He had a severe open skull fracture, and a pulse, but was barely breathing. We did our professional best effort, which included a five-rescuer ambulance rush to the trauma center, trying to keep him viable but, in the end, he couldn't be saved.
Turns out, the pickup truck's driver never saw him until he heard the "thud" of an impact. His right side mirror assembly caught the back of the cyclist's unprotected head, down near the mirror's base, where the metal juts out and the plastic mounts on. The good news is that the poor old guy probably never felt a thing. Later in the afternoon, a few phone calls confirmed my suspicions and previous curiosity about the lone rider. He had no family, other than a sister in Texas, who probably has yet to hear about this tragedy, as the authorities hadn't found her contact info yet.
Without getting too weird, I've decided to follow this case, in hopes of gaining some closure, and to find out what kind of trouble a local driver ends up in when he accidently ends another person's life through a lack of awareness to one's surroundings. I'll report back what I end up finding out.
After 26+ years in the fire service, you have to adopt the outlook of a glorified janitor, going out to clean up messes, in order to stay detached and maintain sanity. But every once in a while, you have to go out and pick up the pieces of somebody you feel a sort of previous relationship with, and that part kinda breaks down the armor and exacts a price. Getting it off my chest helps the healing process. Thanks for providing a place to do that, FJR Forum....
Well, I finally met him this morning, just after 7:00 am. The tones went off, and we were racing to a reported vehicle accident. The mobile data display terminal updated that it was a vehicle vs. bicycle. My captain said "I hope it's not the old guy". We all knew of him.
We arrived to see three people crouched around a gray-haired, motionless body, and his recumbent bike laying a few feet away, seemingly unscathed. He had a severe open skull fracture, and a pulse, but was barely breathing. We did our professional best effort, which included a five-rescuer ambulance rush to the trauma center, trying to keep him viable but, in the end, he couldn't be saved.
Turns out, the pickup truck's driver never saw him until he heard the "thud" of an impact. His right side mirror assembly caught the back of the cyclist's unprotected head, down near the mirror's base, where the metal juts out and the plastic mounts on. The good news is that the poor old guy probably never felt a thing. Later in the afternoon, a few phone calls confirmed my suspicions and previous curiosity about the lone rider. He had no family, other than a sister in Texas, who probably has yet to hear about this tragedy, as the authorities hadn't found her contact info yet.
Without getting too weird, I've decided to follow this case, in hopes of gaining some closure, and to find out what kind of trouble a local driver ends up in when he accidently ends another person's life through a lack of awareness to one's surroundings. I'll report back what I end up finding out.
After 26+ years in the fire service, you have to adopt the outlook of a glorified janitor, going out to clean up messes, in order to stay detached and maintain sanity. But every once in a while, you have to go out and pick up the pieces of somebody you feel a sort of previous relationship with, and that part kinda breaks down the armor and exacts a price. Getting it off my chest helps the healing process. Thanks for providing a place to do that, FJR Forum....
