I need to write about what I saw Saturday. I won't give specifics- names, exact location etc. because there is an active criminal case going on and I'm the star witness. But here goes...
I'm at an intersection munching on my Taco Bell. There are four Bikers in front of me. One girl, three guys - all under 30. Light turns green, they wind up their bikes and start to cross into the intersection. They are talking to each other (fatal mistake). In my peripheral vision I catch a speeding car clearly trying to beat the red light. I stop, they continue. At 3 sec into the green light the car streaks into the intersection at a very high speed. 3 SECONDS!!! Everything slowed down. What turned out to be 5 seconds total seems like 15 minutes. BAM!!!!!! The driver takes out 4 bikes in a second. It looked like a mortar round landing a direct hit. Bodies fly into the air in all different directions. One guy lands three feet from my car. Then quiet. Nothing. I open the door in a state of shock. Four bodies in the road, gasoline smell, human skin on the pavement, blood and a miscellaneous foot too. Dead quiet (cause I'm shock). Then, blood curdling screams for help..many. No actor could replicate the horror and desperation in their voices. I walk into the center of the accident, I'm in a pool of blood and gasoline. More screams..."God Help me!!!" from one..."I don't want to die," from another.
Then my salvation comes. An off duty doctor, still in his greens makes it to me and yells for me to help him. I snap out of it and jump to attention. We go from victim to victim accessing each. The first one we make it to has no pulse. Flat line. I help the doctor with chest compressions. ER nurse drives by and springs into action. She works on the girl who is screaming the loudest. She tells the doctor that she is alive but probably severed her spinal cord. The nurse moves on. A strange mix of an off duty cop and a couple of outlaw bikers take over the scene and dispatch gawkers. Four ambulances + fire rescue trucks arrive. 10 minutes into chest compressions and nothing. He's hooked up to a ventilator and compressions continue. Two men have "minor injuries," shattered femurs etc. The girl is bad off. They spend a lot of time and attention on her... mulling over options to move here. She has lost a lot of skin and her leg looks like a hamhock. They fear internal injuries and move her..she's off. 20 minutes into the accident, the first guy still has no pulse. Chest compressions continue and he is rushed
off with no pulse...not good. Fire department the whole time is laying down sawdust onto the mix of blood and gasoline. They are scared of a combustion event which would have swallowed us up. They warn us and we continue at our own peril. The poor souls are gone now and the mode swings decidedly into a different direction: what the fu ck happened and who is responsible? If there is intrest I will write part two answering these questions.
Why would any sane person ride a motorcycle?