I came across a motorcycle accident...

on my way home today, and I felt totally unprepared. 

I wasn't the first on the scene, so I didn't have to "take charge".  It was a country road and ambulance help was a minimum of 20 minutes away.  Nobody there really had anything useful for this poor fellow.  I keep some clean sheets under my seat for impromptu car seat covers when kids get muddy.  We used those as rolls beside his head to try and keep him from thrashing his head around.  I did have a first aid kit, but we're talking supplies for a scraped knee.  I had very  little sterile gauze to stop the blood from leaking in his eye, as that was agitating him.  I do keep rubber gloves in the console, but didn't think of those until after I had left.  We could really have used some flares, as we were right past a curve in the road.  I definitely want to invest in some of those.  We had to scrounge through multiple vehicles just to find a pencil and scrap of paper for one witness to leave some contact information. 

What types of emergency supplies have any of you found useful to store permanently in a vehicle?  Small enough to stash unnoticed until just such a moment?  

God, that really sucks. Kinda traumatizing. Glad he had people like you stop to help though. I still remmeber when I was 8, going with my mom to pick my dad up from work, and there was this guy lying outside his flipped over car. It was obvious that he hadn't made it. Still stays with me...

The first time I saw a wreck I was 17, and I was the first on the scene. The cops arrived shortly and had absolutely no emergency medical training (cops are typically not 'first response' here). I had taken a course in first aid/cpr and was basically on my own with 3 injured people until a nurse stopped 10 minutes later (10 min doesn't sound like a long time, but it is.) Luckily, my dad used to be an EMT and is a firm believer in always being prepared, so my car is stocked with supplies:

- I have 2 first aid kits. One well stocked one in the trunk (bandages, guaze, ace bandages, tape, alcohol swabs, cold pack, etc), and a smaller one in the glove box (this primarily has guaze and bandages for it I get rear ended and can't access the trunk)

- I keep a couple paint stirrers and strips cut from an old sheet. In a pinch, these can be used to splint injuries.

- Wool Blanket

- Change of clothes.

Not all of this is only used in case of a car wreck. If my car breaks down in the middle of nowhere in winter, a blanket is nice. If we're out hiking, I know that if someone falls, I only need to make it back to my car to help them, etc.

That must have been horrible. I hope the guy recovered. I lost my husband to a motorcycle accident 20 years ago and still have vivid and horrible memories of how he looked when I got the hospital. Thank God for people like yu who stop and help in terrible situations!

Do you know how he is?

I'm a former EMT, so I keep a basic "jump kit" in my car.  It's in a small backpack, and includes gloves, a blood pressure cuff and steth, trauma dressings, some various sizes of gauze rolls, tape, emergency blankets (the kind that you can find in most sporting goods), along with the stuff that you find in a store bought first aid kit.  The basic stuff that you'd need just until the ambulance arrives.  (The bp cuff isn't necessary, but can be helpful to the paramedics if you can give them a bp history so they know right away if the vitals are stable, falling, etc.... plus it can be used in a pinch as a pressure dressing for heavy bleeding on an extremity, IN SOME CASES)

I think it sounds like you did a great job of caring for the guy...thanks for being willing to help when so many would not! :)

this was so traumatizing- i basically witnessed the same thing a couple weeks ago:

i was driving my brother to the library one night and, stopped at an intersection, a young couple on a motorcycle accelerated between our car and another and almost entered the intersection on an advance green for opposing traffic.... freaked us out and we spent the next two minutes talking about how dangerous reckless driving is, and my brother said something (jokingly) about how we would probably hear sirens in a couple minutes, since the motorcycle sped off on green and quickly passed about four cars in the turning lane

next thing we knew, we come up over a hill and there was shattered motorcycle all over the road and their two bodies just like siezing and howling, meters apart... it was terrifying... fortunately there were already several people leaping out of their cars to help but i have no idea what i would have done if it had just been me

anyway i was alittle shaken the rest of the trip to say the least- and my poor brother felt so guilty about having made that comment- we both saw the consequences of dangerous driving firsthand :(

Original Post by lahnals:

this was so traumatizing- i basically witnessed the same thing a couple weeks ago:

i was driving my brother to the library one night and, stopped at an intersection, a young couple on a motorcycle accelerated between our car and another and almost entered the intersection on an advance green for opposing traffic.... freaked us out and we spent the next two minutes talking about how dangerous reckless driving is, and my brother said something (jokingly) about how we would probably hear sirens in a couple minutes, since the motorcycle sped off on green and quickly passed about four cars in the turning lane

next thing we knew, we come up over a hill and there was shattered motorcycle all over the road and their two bodies just like siezing and howling, meters apart... it was terrifying... fortunately there were already several people leaping out of their cars to help but i have no idea what i would have done if it had just been me

anyway i was alittle shaken the rest of the trip to say the least- and my poor brother felt so guilty about having made that comment- we both saw the consequences of dangerous driving firsthand :(

 sounds like a couple of "crotch rockets" - they drive like idiots sometimes.

minda_spk  Thanks for the reply (others too!).  The paint stirrer sticks are a GREAT idea.  I just happen to have a few sitting around, the big 5 gallon size.  They fit perfectly under the seat with the new sheets. 

maryann10646  I talked to one of the cops today that responded and interviewed the victim at the hospital.  He should be fine, but he would have been better if he had been wearing a helmet.  His head and face acquired quite a few cuts, but his leathers did their job.  Too bad the paramedics had to cut them off!  The cop said that he had a broken leg, maybe a hip as well.  There was absolutely no obvious reason for the accident to have occured where and when it did.  The driver wasn't from around here, and he was driving a brand new Harley.  No wonder why he reacted so badly when he heard another fellow say that the motorcyle parts were in the back of his truck! 

I'm so glad he's going to be all right. 

I just wanted to chime in and reassure you that however little you may feel you did, the fact that you stopped and even tried to help probably meant a lot more than you realize. My husband lost control of his motorcycle on the expressway a month ago (cut off during a lane change), and the only help he got was one woman stopped just long enough to call 911 before taking off again. He sat alone on the side of the road for twenty minutes, freaking out because he couldn't tell how badly he was hurt - all he knew is that he had a deep gash on his arm that was bleeding pretty freely and he couldn't feel one of his legs from the knee down. Luckily his phone was still working and he was able to call me; just having someone to talk to helped enormously, and I'm sure having someone physically there made all the difference in the world to that guy you helped.

(For the record, my husband was wearing a helmet and it almost definitely saved his life. Had he been wearing a proper riding jacket, he would have been nearly unscathed. Protective gear works, people. I don't care how hot the weather gets or how uncool you think it is - there's a damn good reason for it. /lecture )

That is just AWFUL!  Every car that passed us at least stopped to see if we needed anything else.  It probably has something to do with the fact that this was a country road and not an expressway though!  The difference in the general driving etiquette is fairly obvious. 

Original Post by fightinginsanity:

minda_spk  Thanks for the reply (others too!).  The paint stirrer sticks are a GREAT idea.  I just happen to have a few sitting around, the big 5 gallon size.  They fit perfectly under the seat with the new sheets. 

maryann10646  I talked to one of the cops today that responded and interviewed the victim at the hospital.  He should be fine, but he would have been better if he had been wearing a helmet.  His head and face acquired quite a few cuts, but his leathers did their job.  Too bad the paramedics had to cut them off!  The cop said that he had a broken leg, maybe a hip as well.  There was absolutely no obvious reason for the accident to have occured where and when it did.  The driver wasn't from around here, and he was driving a brand new Harley.  No wonder why he reacted so badly when he heard another fellow say that the motorcyle parts were in the back of his truck! 

 In my husband's accident it was the no helmet too. He had a major closed head injury. Of course, who knows what would have been the outcome had he had one on. Only God can know.

Glad the guy will be ok.