Thursday, May 12, 2011

"9-1-1, What's your emergency?"

That really isn't ever the way you want a phone conversation to start out. The next worse sentence would be the reply. "Hello, a biker has been hit by a car and he is laying on the side of the road." It may have come out different, but that was my general response.

Let's back up a little. After brunch on Mother's Day we ran home to change into comfy clothes and skype with my parents for a few minutes. After finally getting the car reloaded, we took off for the short 2 mile drive to Dustin's parents house. We were driving down the county road that leads to their house when a mini-van coming at us start swerving a bit. Dustin made a comment about how fast they were going but people tend to speed on that road. There was also a biker coming at us, he was wearing a helmet and the brightest yellow sweatshirt possible. He was as far onto the grass as he could get.

We all passed in a line and at the moment, I was looking down at my camera. Suddenly Dustin slams on the brakes and we skid to a stop. He yells "Oh my God, that van just hit that biker." He pulls a fast turn around in a driveway and throws me his cell phone. Meanwhile, the van that hit him keeps going. The biker heard us coming and threw his arm up in the air, either to let us know he needed help or to make sure we knew he was lying there.

Dustin debated going after the mini-van but at that point no one else was around to help the man so we stopped. I jumped out of the car before it even came to a stop, and a lady from a house on the corner came sprinting over at the same time. I talked to 911 and gave them all the details they asked for. Amazingly a volunteer firefighter was driving by and he stopped to help. Within 5 minutes three or four other volunteer firefighters showed up and pulled their uniforms from their truck beds. Dustin and I had been directing traffic and they took over.

The man, a 57 year old, was conscious and talking, thankfully. At first he seemed to be in shock and was moaning but they he told us his name, age, and even joked with us a little. He had some serious road burn and was complaining about his hip. The ambulance pulled up shortly and blocked our van in, and by this point the girls were freaking out. I called my father in-law since they lived only a half mile down, and he came and got the girls.

Dustin and I stayed on the scene with the woman who came running from her house and gave a statement to the police. Dustin looked in his rear-view mirror to see the guy go down so he didn't actually see the van hit him, but the woman was is in her house and heard the impact, which should be enough to show that he did get hit.

Unfortunately the van was long gone and going way too fast for anyone to get a good look, so there is a good chance they will never be caught.

How is that for some excitement on Mother's Day?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How terrible. Prayers for the biker! And for the driver, a different set of prayers, and may he be caught!