and man, it was a doozie. it's not everyday you have 911 in your recent calls list on your cell phone. this story get's a little "not for the faint of heart" at times.
ok, I work for a gas station (been over this before), and we compare prices w/ other gas stations by driving to them and writing them down (duh). ok, well I was out doing this yesterday, and here's the scenario, play-by-play
merging on (left hand merge) and I see a motorcycle, so I say, "gee, let's watch out for him", so I'm pretty alert and paying attention. I get in the right lane doing 60-65mph (it was around 1:45pm), and I hear this "whooooooom" of a muffler fly by me, I'd guess around 80 mph, +/- 5mph, in the left lane. it was a Talon, I dunno what year, I just know it was AWD. he gets about 50 yards in front of me (maybe) and his rear left tire explodes. not goes flat, it just blows completely.
one of two things happened: either he tried to slant to the left to get off the road, or his rim simply hit pavement, but either way, his car turned sideways to the right, and going so fast it just took off. at first I'm thinking "yea, stupid, going way too fast and your tire blows. ha-ha". then I see him go sideways. "oh no, I hope everyone gets out of his way". then I see a green SUV swerve severely to try to avoid him (I'm not sure that the two actually ever struck, but it matters not). at this point I lost sight of the SUV for a moment or two, but I was told it rolled at least twice. by the time I saw it, it was back on it's tires, facing the wrong way, and slid sideways into a wall of trees. the Talon did about the same, minus the rolling.
at this point the windshield was gone, but here's the horrible part, the driver didn't have her seatbelt on. this all happened right before my eyes, and I watched as she flew out of the front of the car, limp, and bounced/rolled to a stop. at this point my brakes are to the floor and I'm sprinting to the car w/ cell phone in hand. others came to help too, so I mostly concentrated on the phone while they were with her. she had two little girls in the car, around 12 years old, her daughter and her daughter's friend. the friend got ejected as well (no seatbelt), but everyone else seems just fine. they were up, moving around, mostly freaking out, and the daughter was eventually neckbraced and strapped down for precautionary measures, while they tried to get the friend's parents on the phone. the driver of the Talon didn't even have a scratch.
back to the woman. I see blood everywhere, face, hands, mouth. they tell me a lot is coming from her mouth, they say they can hear gurgling- she punctured a lung. the exit we were at was the one prior to a hospital. apparently she broke her jaw too, she can't even open her mouth to try and breathe through her own blood.
we just kept asking the troopers if she was ok, he just kept saying no. eventually, he told us she didn't look good, and he didn't think she'd make it if she wasn't already gone. I'll put it to you guys like this, the ambulance stayed for 10-15 minutes, but when it finally left, it's sirens weren't even on.
the driver of the Talon? well, he seemed pretty calm through the ordeal. I don't know if he knew how bad the woman was, but he seemed more intent on getting his "I dunno what happened, I just lost control" story to everyone. I looked right at him and let him know, your tire exploded man, it wasn't your engine/axle or anything, your REAR tire exploded.
it's crazy, had he been going 60, I doubt he'd have lost control like that, it was a rear tire. I feel no sympathy for this man, but the situation is crazy, we've all sped at some point (granted, this was excessive esp. at 1:30 in the afternoon), never thinking a tire would explode and we'd be responsible for the death of someone. the only thing she did wrong was not put on her seatbelt, and I doubt she even saw it coming.
he said he got it two weeks prior, and the tires looked really new. but I've been told that usually, when you buy a car, the tires it comes with are rated up to 70. maybe 75 mph, and you're supposed to change them if you wanna go faster.
I dunno, I just had to vent/whatever you wanna call it. I was the first one on the scene, and the first one to call paramedics, and I just wish I could've done more, and I can't stop thinking about the little girls who, like their mom, didn't even see it coming, and now their lives are totally different forever.
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