The other day I left for a walk to the grocery store.  It's winter and we had just had a big snow fall, followed by a day of melting, and this day it was below zero so the roads were very icy. 

I hadn't gotten more than a block across the street from the house,  I was about to turn the corner and I heard a loud crash.

Just to give an idea on the magnitude of the sound from the crash behind me, between me and our house, I can say that before my next step hit the ground I had pulled my cell phone out, taken a deep breath, pivoted back around towards the crash, and was dialing 911.

But I hit 914.  

I don't use my phone often, its old, and I couldn't see well in the sun.  I scrambled to find the back button while starting a slow jog up the street.  I finally got it and looked up, with the phone to my ear, to see two vehicles at rest from a fairly significant T-bone style intersection collision.

“911 emergency.”

“Hi there's been a pretty bad accident at...”

I was just getting up to the intersection.  I know where I live but I have a weird thing with recalling numbers and names.  I wanted to make sure I got it perfect, this is crucial because I live about 8 blocks from the hospital, if someone is hurt badly they will likely survive if the ambulance is dispatched IMMEDIETLY.  

I DO have first responder training, but I also know I am the first one to call for help because I called immediately when I heard the crash-it's doubtful anyone was that quick.

Anyways, I give the name of the intersection we are at, literally reading it off the streets signs.  The dispatch confirms the city, and asks me to confirm my phone number.  I don't actually know it, not in an emergency situation, I don't particularly like phones but I give the number in my head (its my old number).   The dispatch starts to confirm a different number, I can barely hear because of the wind.  I look up there's people gathering, I can't see in the one vehicle, a van, because there are two deployed air bags.  There is no movement otherwise.

The SUV is closer. I approach slowly because I know you have to take care of yourself first.  You can't just run into a situation, there is traffic still figuring out what has happened.

“Yup that's my number”  I was confused why they were arguing with me.  Then I realize they have my number on caller id and I was giving the wrong one.  I don't care about my number, and can't get my brain to care-I'm worried about what I may be about to see.

“How many vehicles, and how many are injured?”

“2 vehicles, I don't know, I'm checking”.

I look over towards the van.  It's driver side door is smashed in.  I look at a crowd of 5 to 10 bystanders and call out “Is everyone OK there?” And I point.  Each of them is stone faced.  They don't seem to know what to do.  No answer, not even body language. Bah.

There is a lady getting out of the passenger side of the SUV. She seems OK, she looks white.

Dispatch is still in my ear, “I'm transferring you over to the paramedic.”  

Actually I couldn't really hear, I just knew I was getting transferred. Perhaps to the Ambulance dispatch or the actual paramedics that would be attending.  They asked to confirm the intersection address and that I don't hang up.  

You aren't supposed to hang up until you are told to, and I wouldn't, except if someone was hurt I was clearly going to have to pass the phone to someone else.

“Is there anyone hurt?”

“I'm checking.”  “Hello, Ma'am, is everyone OK in there?”

I could hear 2 infants crying for sure.

She was clearly shook up bad, “I, I don't know...I don't know what happened...”

This is the point where my personality sort of comes into play. It's an intense situation and only about 2 minutes have gone by tops since the “bang”.  Already I have a whole group standing there which seems as shell shocked as this lady, and I just wanna grab her by the shoulders and GENTLY shake her and say “Lady I'm like 99% sure there are two infants in the back of this  vehicle and that they are YOUR children.”

I still have the phone to my ear.  I look at the lady softly and say “I'm just going to take a quick look.” 

The driver, I am assuming the husband and dad, was getting out of the driver's seat (albeit very slowly).  I went to look in the passenger side, through the middle and to the back, but I didn't bother even fully sticking my head in.

“Two kids crying” I said on the phone. 

I don't know if that “code” got across, but by my understanding there is a difference between screaming and crying.  The mother would have to forgive me if there was a third child or adult unconscious in the back. 

“I'm going to the next vehicle.”

I walk over and pass a bystander I didn't recognize from my earlier scan.

“Were you in the vehicle?”

I get barely a movement from the man.  I'm pretty sure he was the passenger in the van and he's clearly in shock but OK.

I walk around the passenger side of the van, the door is open, I look inside and there is a lady sitting in the driver's seat staring straight ahead.  She's in visible shock as well, but she seems to be OK.  

“Are you OK?”

She doesn't even look over but she doesn't look to be in any discomfort or pain whatsoever.  Just white as the airbags is all. 

“Ya, she's OK, everyone seems to be fine-they are all in shock. Everyone was wearing their seat belts”

I say it loud, because I really feel the lady frozen in the driver's seat needs to hear it. Tension released slightly. The crowd standing around hears it too, somehow I felt they needed to hear it as well.

“Everyone is OK?”

“Yup, still definitely send police or something!” I have a fear of calling 911 in an event that isn't an emergency but rather something I over-reacted on.  Here I am suggesting we probably still need police, but OF COURSE an ambulance is well on its way and is definitely required regardless if everyone is relatively fine.

It's still only been a couple of minutes.

I walk back to the SUV. There is one young 2 or 3 year old little girl slowly walking around the back with her mom.  The child is still wailing and looks like she blew some blood vessels on her face from it.

Dad is unbuckling the younger little girl from her car seat. 

“You, might wanna let her sit there sir.”

I mean, I'm thinking about how she probably has some form of whiplash, actually everyone involved probably does, and so the support of the car seat is probably the best thing for her.  The dad looks at me and nods in half agreement, but as I turn around he continues.  I feel fine with my suggestion, of course its useless: How or why would you expect to convince a dad not to hold his crying and scared child?

I turn back around to the Van and the mob is literally ripping the driver's side door off.  OK.  Good monkeys.

The dispatch or paramedic on the phone is asking for more details, nothing I care about or that are important from my view, and thankfully I hear the ambulance arrive and I know I'm no longer the leader. 

I cut the speaker off, “The ambulance is here!”

“The ambulance is there?”

“Yup”  We have to confirm, I expected this.

“OK, you are done then!  Good job! You can hang up now.”

Don't hang up until they tell you to.

“Thank you bye.”

I see the driver in the van is walking around now, half to full dazed.  Nice job people.  Every single one of you is out walking like zombie's half knowing what is going on. Normally its the responder's job to take care of such meandering because people might not be as OK as they think they are, but whatever, everyone is at least reasonably OK and who am I to argue.

The ambulance pulls up, the two paramedics jump out, and each of the victims starts to b-line towards them.  I'm a little quicker though.

“I called it in, everyone seems to be fine, they are all in shock.”  

The paramedic nods and starts to send a line of people to the back of his bus.

Cool.  I saw another bystander dial her phone about 2 minutes after me and she was heading over saying she saw the whole thing.  I nodded to her and pulled her aside with my voice.

“You saw it all?”

“Yup.” she says.

“OK, I didn't see ANYTHING, I just HEARD it.”

“Oh, you just heard it?”

“Yup, so I'm going to leave OK.”

“Oh, yup OK, I witnessed it!”

Sweet.  I'll save lives, or try, if I have to, but I don't want my name on anything, I don't want to be a witness or talk to cops.  I was just out for a nice walk hoping to avoid any social discomfort on the way.

I make one last gesture and ask the driver of the SUV if he put the vehicle into park.  He doesn't care. I'm out of here, it's flat ground.

Whatever, it takes me a bit to realize, maybe hours later, but was I ever glad no one was actually hurt.  

I continue my walk.  My job is done, I don't know how well I did, or how well I would have done if there were people that were actually hurt, but I do know that I called the ambulance a lot faster than anyone else did and that it probably would have arrived in time to save most casualties had there have been any.