RSSMy first fatality accident
Feb 13
Uncategorized , car accident, clean-up, death, Fatality, I-25, jeep, scrap metal No Comments
Hey everybody.
Despite all of the exciting things happening with my podcasts, thats not what Im hear to talk about today. Yesterday I had to clean up my first fatality accident.
Yesterday afternoon we heard over the police scanner and the internet that I-25 had been shut down for the second time yesterday for an accident. The first one was a 90 year old man going the wrong way on the interstate, which is not what this is about. At the time of the news, I thought nothing of it as its not that unusual. That changed when we got the call to go pick up the wreck and clean up the accident. This was the call I have been on in years. At the time, we didn’t realize it was a fatality accident. We didn’t know that until we got to the scene and were told we needed to flip the rolled jeep right side up so they could remove the body. After my grandpa got the jeep flipped up and moved so that they could open at least one lane of the interstate soon, I was tasked with sweeping up all the floor dry that way put down to soak up all the oil and gasoline. When I got done sweeping, they were able to open up one lane of the interstate so that traffic could slowly begin to filter through.
The Jeep had been hauling a very large load of scrap metal. Attached to the Jeep was a trailer loaded with vehicle frames, washer and dryer parts, wheels, rusty nails, wire and even a kitchen sink. Between the jeep, the trailer and all the scrap, it took four loaded flatbed wreckers to haul off with the mess.
This was my first time seeing a dead body. As soon as they said there was a body still in the vehicle, I wondered what my reaction would be like when I saw it. When I finally saw it when the jeep was flipped back over and when they pulled the body out, I seemed to have no reaction at all. Seeing the bloody, mangled corpse got no real reaction out of me whatsoever. Out of respect, I tried not to look at it too much and mind my own business. After they hauled off with the body, the real work began. With all of the scrap he was hauling, it took forever to clean up. We threw what we could in what was left of the jeep while loading up the other two wreckers. I probably wouldn’t have hated the cleanup as much as I did if it wasn’t for the tangled mess of wire that kept tripping myself and everybody else up. There was probably 40 people on the scene. By the time you add the army of state patrol, fire department, sheriff, coroner, us, and everybody else that happened to be there, it was rather crowded at times.
While I certainly wouldn’t call it fun, it put some excitement into my day that I haven’t had in a long time. By the time we were done cleaning up, my already bad back was killing me. I thought I would have to go to the chiropractor this morning, but so far I am feeling better. Below is a link to the local newspaper article on the accident including pictures where I am sweeping off the right shoulder.
That is the story of my first and hopefully last fatality accident. I am happy to answer any questions that anybody has.
-pcnerd37
