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[Danny]

I've been in a few crap situations in the 7 years I've been driving, but I've never, ever come across anything like this in my life.

I wasn't involved in any way, but tonight I witnessed first hand an extremely serious RTA involving two cars. I believe it was between a Pug 307 and a Citroen Saxo, but the cars were literally unrecognisable.

The accident happened between Caldicot and Newport. The Pug was the culprit, it contained three lads, coming from the opposite direction, at breakneck speed. Just lost control on the bend, and literally wiped out the Saxo (And it's teenage law abiding female driver)

A group of us ran out to both of the wreckages to try and help, and call the services. Unfortunately I doubt the lads in the Pug in the have a chance, I have never seen such a mess of a car and when the fire service arrived they were cutting it open. One man was spraying that car with a fire extinguisher before they arrived, lots of smoke.

While they were helping the pug, I focused my attention on the other car. The Saxo, whilst in a severe mess, was not quite as bad, and we were able to get the girl (who was driving alone) free of the car. She was in an extremely bad way too, definately had a broken leg, and difficulty breathing and keeping concious.  Thankfully I am first aid trained, and I was able to use my first aid skills as best as I could  until the rapid response paramedic arrived. They told me I did right, which is a reassurance. She is in a critical condition with suspected internal injuries, I will be praying for her.

I'm really shaken up, thought it might help to note it down. Also good to note down asap at the time, because it's fresh in mind, and I'm likely to want to refer to it when talking to police.

It's changed my mind about joining the Force too. Whilst I think I acted really well at the scene, it's really eating into me now and it's not something I will ever forget. It's not something I think I could do regularly. Trafpol is clearly not about driving fast cars, there are some extremely grim aspects.

I have passed on my details to one of the attending officer that requested them. He took notes from me at the time, but he said I may need to be contacted again.

Please think about killing your speed - it only takes something like this and it can all be over. Also, please pray for the victims, especially the innocent young lady.

situations like this are exactly the reason (and really the only reason) why I didnt take this career choice, there's no way i could face a grown adult and watch them get upset after me telling them something's happened to a loved one

[alanfp]

Interesting, James that it has had the effect of slowing you down a bit.  We all (especially men) think we're invincible/immortal, but I'm afraid none of us is.  It's no bad thing to take it a bit easier.  But again, my advice would be not to stop driving.  We all have to take some risks just to live.  

I rode a motorbike for a few years and the thought process is quite enlightening - you are at a far greater risk, but I enjoyed the speed/acceleration.

But things in your life change, I'm now married and hope to be a father during 2008, all being well.  I'm not inclined to go out on the bike at all at the moment, as you're at the mercy of so many things beyond your control, and a) you are less stable on 2 wheels and b) if it all goes wrong, you haven't got a ton of steel, crumple zones, seat belts, airbags etc to protect you.

Best advice at my m/c club (when considering whether to make an overtake or not) was "might you meet yourself coming the other way?" - i.e. although the manouvre would be safe if everyone else is doing 50mph and keeping to their own side of the road, what if there's another bike (or Ferrari) coming the other way who also decides to overtake at 100!

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

Best advice at my m/c club (when considering whether to make an overtake or not) was "might you meet yourself coming the other way?" - i.e. although the manouvre would be safe if everyone else is doing 50mph and keeping to their own side of the road, what if there's another bike (or Ferrari) coming the other way who also decides to overtake at 100!

 I've been taught to think in terms of, from the loss of vision... how quick could something physically be coming towards me - irrespective of the speed limit and indeed a sensible speed - if a Yamaha R1 comes off the bend or out of the junction ahead, and accelerates hard... have I got an escape route?

[miggy]

To be honest, I've discussed it to death, which I guess has helped.

I have since heard that the girl I helped is in a stable condition which has really pleased me - no news on the lads, though.

It was as my girlfriend said - a few seconds later, and it would have been me in the Meega they hit. Food for thought!

I think it's important to do your best for others in these situations, because I would want help if it happened to me.

Driving to work this morning, along the M4, I couldn't bring myself to go over 65mph (I usually cane it at about 90..) .. I kept having horrible twitches and flashbacks, especially when anyone got close to me. And I started sweating when I was near the A48 junction with the bridge, which is near where it happened.

Me thinks I need to put the car to bed for a while and get the train to work....

You done a good job there James, my hat off to you.

Well done mate, the memory will ease with time.

My next door traf police buddy was aware of the accident but he was on a domestic in Cardiff at the time, he was asked to attend but due to distance it was passed onto the traffic control room in Magor.

Can you believe, my mate was on a domestic, traffic police used for that :question :question :question :question

[JamesV6CDX]

To be honest, I've discussed it to death, which I guess has helped.

I have since heard that the girl I helped is in a stable condition which has really pleased me - no news on the lads, though.

It was as my girlfriend said - a few seconds later, and it would have been me in the Meega they hit. Food for thought!

I think it's important to do your best for others in these situations, because I would want help if it happened to me.

Driving to work this morning, along the M4, I couldn't bring myself to go over 65mph (I usually cane it at about 90..) .. I kept having horrible twitches and flashbacks, especially when anyone got close to me. And I started sweating when I was near the A48 junction with the bridge, which is near where it happened.

Me thinks I need to put the car to bed for a while and get the train to work....

You done a good job there James, my hat off to you.

Well done mate, the memory will ease with time.

My next door traf police buddy was aware of the accident but he was on a domestic in Cardiff at the time, he was asked to attend but due to distance it was passed onto the traffic control room in Magor.

Can you believe, my mate was on a domestic, traffic police used for that :question :question :question :question

Cheers Pete

If I can get away from work at a reasonable hour I'm going to take that route back to Cardiff again tonight. I somehow feel it might make things seem a bit easier...

[Paul M]

This is a rather harrowing story, sounds like you done well though. It has made me think I should get some first aid training, I have a kit in the BMW (fitted as standard) and I believe there should be one in the Omega judging by the symbol in the boot, but there isn't actually one there. To be honest I wouldn't really know how to use it should I find myself in a similar scenario. Imagine you'd witnessed that but been helpless to do anything, I think that would be far more difficult to deal with.

I found myself being the 2nd on the scene of a bike accident last year when I was in the US, and I was really glad that the guy who arrived first knew what he was doing. I basically just helped prevent any further incidents with other traffic (it was a country road) until the emergency services arrived. First to arrive was a fire truck, and one of the guys gave me a hand held stop sign and instructed me to just stop all traffic until the cops arrived. Not sure whether technically I had any powers to do so legally -- certainly I doubt anyone other than a traffic warden/police can direct traffic here, but they were all perfectly compliant as it was obvious there had been some kind of incident.

It's perfectly normal to have some unpleasant afterthoughts due to what you've witnessed, but I'm sure this will fade with time.

[Paul M]

Best advice at my m/c club (when considering whether to make an overtake or not) was "might you meet yourself coming the other way?" - i.e. although the manouvre would be safe if everyone else is doing 50mph and keeping to their own side of the road, what if there's another bike (or Ferrari) coming the other way who also decides to overtake at 100!

 I've been taught to think in terms of, from the loss of vision... how quick could something physically be coming towards me - irrespective of the speed limit and indeed a sensible speed - if a Yamaha R1 comes off the bend or out of the junction ahead, and accelerates hard... have I got an escape route?

That might be me on that R1

I agree completely with what has been said here though, when I'm out on the bike yes theoretically I can accelerate from 40 to 100 in a few seconds should I feel the need, but what if someone around the bend I'm approaching does the same in the opposite direction? If there's any doubt about an overtake I simply wait. There are usually plenty of opportunities to pass safely on a bike due to the phenomenal acceleration, so having to wait behind a car for a few turns is no big deal. Better to arrive a few seconds later than not arrive at all 8-)