Call me, definitely

[Warning: Long winded.]

Okay, as promised... my exciting Saturday from last weekend. I planned to go for a bike ride out in a rural area of the state, maybe about 35 miles from where I live. The slight problem with this area is that there are a lot of gravel/dirt roads, and I have a road bike, so I parked my car at the end of one of these dirt roads where it intersects with the paved road. Picture a "T" – the right branch of the T is the dirt road where I was parked, and the other two branches are the same paved road – so it basically does a 90 degree left turn.

As I was getting my bike ready, I saw this car come screaming toward the left turn and slam on the brakes as she reached the center of the T. I thought he (turns out it was a she, I later found out) had meant to turn right onto the gravel road, but instead she backed up and continued to the left. About 20-30 seconds later I heard a loud "bang," as if the car had bottomed out or something. I honestly thought nothing of it – "Hmm, maybe the car crashed!" flashed through my mind, but only for a millisecond, then I dismissed the idea.

Anyway, a minute or so later I'm pedaling down the road where the white car had gone, and I saw it up ahead pulled over to the right side, in front of a tree. This sounds stupid, but as I neared it, I thought, "Well, he probably had to go pee, saw me and didn't want to go  in the field while I was standing there, so looks like he found a place!" Seriously, that's what ran through my head. I have no idea why, considering the field on the left had a barbed wire fence, but that's the logical conclusion I had.

As I passed the car, going maybe 10 mph, I looked to see if the person was still inside (you know, to validate my pee theory) and didn't see anyone. Then I did a double take: the airbags had gone off. As I hit the brakes I saw someone in the driver's seat slumped over to the passenger side. Fuuuuccckkk.

I scrambled over to the side of the road, grabbed my phone, and called 911. Voice shaking, I told the operator that I was on my bike and "found" a car accident, and I was fine but the person in the car was not. As I walked back to the car I got a better look at the scene and saw the hood was crumpled and the windshield was cracked – she had obviously hit the tree. As I waited for the operator to transfer me to the sheriff's office, I walked closer to the driver's side and was relieved to see that the woman driving was alive – out for the count, but alive – and no blood.

While I was on the phone, a couple in their car was driving past, and I flagged them down. As I hung up, I immediately told them, "I'm fine, she didn't hit me!" (Something I had to repeat ad nauseam for the next 90 minutes). They turned out to not be of much help – I was really hoping for a medical professional ;) – so I went over and started talking to the driver. She was kind of in and out of consciousness and then started to panic a bit, so I told her the only thing I knew: "Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth." Then I asked her if she had any kids, and what their names were, etc... basically kept her talking and focused on something other than the fact she was in a car crash.

As I talked to her, I noticed her pupils were tiny pinpricks. The last time I fainted, the nurses told me they knew I was about to go because my pupils had blown out (sign of shock/dropped blood pressure), so I thought that was strange. Combined with the fact I had just seen her driving erratically less than five minutes before, I suspected she was on something.

About 2 minutes later, another person pulls up and gets out, fortunately wearing a volunteer EMT shirt – he lived nearby and heard the call on the scanner. I happily stepped away to let him do his job and waited for the paramedics to arrive. (And two fire trucks, and after what seemed like half an hour, the police.)

Once they had everything under control (she was actually standing up when they finally got her out of the car, so no broken bones or immediate damage), I was approached by a few LE people and asked to describe what happened. Meanwhile, a backup of about seven cars/gawkers had formed – why they just didn't turn around and use an alternative route is beyond me, because this road was a very small secondary road that you can access on another end – and once again, I had to explain that I actually came across the scene, was not involved in the crash, and she did not hit the tree to avoid me.

Finally, about an hour and half later, they carted her off, I wrote down a final statement for the cops, and was allowed to leave/continue on my bike ride, since I had only gone 2/10ths of a mile.

So that's my 911 story. It's funny, I've never had to call 911 before, and prior to that day I always thought it would be one of those things where I questioned my judgment later, such as, "Gee, that guy looks like an axe murderer, but he might not be... should I call?"  Definitely, definitely not the case... this was "Holy shit, I need to call 911 right NOW."

Oh, and I later found out from the deputy that it was a DUI/drug related accident. Out of curiosity, I searched the sheriff's website and the local papers to see if it had been recorded publicly, but nothing's come up. I'm guessing this is a good thing?