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I have experianced a lot this summer at work, with the nature of what I have been doing I could probobly write a half decent book about it but Friday I experianced somthing I never ever wanted to.
My brother and I were heading up north from Calgary with the truck, we left at 4am. The weather has been **** for the last few days up around Edmonton with lots of rain, hail, and tornado warnings. When we stopped for breakfast in Red Deer at 6:30 there was 4" of hail still piled up against the door of the restaurant. Anyway so we finish up and head north through Sylvan Lake and up the #20 Hwy.
About 20km outside of Sylvan we crest a hill and see down the road 2 cars stopped at the side of it. I also see stuff all over the road, as we get closer we can see its dirt. We slow down assuming a farm truck lost its load. As we get closer tho we start to see it, a truck off the road in the farmers field still smoking. We stop and run into the field, the people that had also stopped were running down the bank as well. We get down to the truck and find the worst thing you could ever imagine. The truck has obviously rolled a few times and the cab isjust crushed. We can see a guy in there, he is alert and can talk. Then I see the worst thing.....two guys in the field. I run over to one my brother to the other. I ask him what happend, how did he get here, did you crawl away? The guy has NO idea where he is, what happend and then I realize the worst, both of these guys have been ejected from the truck. They both flew about 30' from the truck, one is face down the other on his side. More and more cars start stopping and more people come to help. We checked vital signs as best we could but not having gloves it was tough. There was a lot of blood. Both people outside the truck were 21 and 23, both from Nova Scotia and had been here 3 weeks. We covered them in jackets and towels and tried to keep them alert. People stayed with the guy in the truck and we get the cutters from my truck and pried open the hood and cut the battery ground so nothing could ignite.
We were in the field with these guys for 30 minutes before the first rescue vehicles arrived. Its small town Alberta and middle of nowhere, in hindsight they were lucky they were so close to Sylvan Lake cause if this had been on the road to Fort Mack you wouldn't see them go off and rescue is hours away. Fire truck and ambulances began to arrive. The 23 year old on his side however had began to go into shock. He was slurring his words and coughing up a lot of blood. The 21 year old was face down and had shooting pains in his back. We cut his shirt off and he had bad marks and impact wounds all the way up it. He could however wiggle his toes so that was a good sign.
Jaws of life arrived and cut the guy in the truck out. If the truck had not been equipped with a headache rack he would have surely died. The cab was crushed all the way down to the window sill. The headache rack on the back of the cab acted like a roll over bar however and stopped the back seat area from being crushed flat. They eventually got him out and into an ambluance and off to Red Deer. The next out of the field was the 21 year old. He took a while stabalize but we eventually were able to carry him up. The 23 year old was really bad tho. He was slipping in and out and losing a lot of blood. We eventually got him onto a board and up the bank but he was in bad shape. They made the call to STARS the helicopter lifeflight to come in. 15 minutes later they arrived and put it down right on the highway. By this time tho the paramedics were shooting him with everything they could trying to keep him alive. STARS had to evaluate the guy he was in such bad condition to find out whether it was even worth taking him. Eventually they did but the fireman told us they had done everything they could for him, it was up to him to hold on for another 20 minutes til he was flown into Edmonton. There was talk of massive head trauma and most of the paramedics said his chances were slim.
We stuck around and helped clean up the scene with the police and firemen, we couldn't go anywhere due to our truck being basically in the middle of the whole mess, we had used it to block part of the highway. We finally got back into the truck my brother and I, I dont think we spoke more than 5 words the rest of our 4 hour drive. I was in complete shock and still am. When we were talking to the guy that was in the truck trapped he had said the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, the skid marks on the banked shoulder explained the rest of the events. He had tried to catch it and correct, but turning up the hill had led to the rear wheels sliding furhter down, eventually the truck ended up sideways, caught in the moist soil and began to roll.
The scariest thing is my brother and I had been talking on the way up about how close we have come a few times to falling asleep. Working 18-19 hour days driving 1200km's or more a day. I have caught myself on a couple of occassions taking the long 3 second blinks. I have taken cat naps more times than I can count on dirt roads off the highway for 20-30 minutes, and I have racked up major minutes talking to people on my phone just so I have somthing keeping me awake. We saw how easily this can happen and what the results were.
On our walk back up the bank to our truck we found the windshield, with blood on it, 200' from where the truck lay. Had the oil change tag on it and everything. The victims stuff was all over the place, wallets, change, lighters, cigs, clothes. All they were doing was just like we were, on their way to work for the day. Definetly has me still sick to my stomach.
I tried calling the paramedics to find out any news but they had not recieved any at the time. It bothers me in my gut, I dont want to know if this guy died because he will literally have died in our arms in a field, but I just want to hear that he is alright.
Definetly the worst day of work I have ever had.
I snapped these with my Treo while we were cleaning up....definetly a chilling reminder.
The truck after jaws of life cut the roof off. You can see the black headache rack
Here you can see the skid marks on the shoulder. The truck basically began to roll at the red corolla. The windshield is actually on the shoulder at the front on the corolla. They went a long way into the field, and are damn lukcy it didn't hit the hydro pole or it would have destroyed the cab.
STARS coming in to land on the highway
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/londar/Crash3.jpg[/img
My brother and I were heading up north from Calgary with the truck, we left at 4am. The weather has been **** for the last few days up around Edmonton with lots of rain, hail, and tornado warnings. When we stopped for breakfast in Red Deer at 6:30 there was 4" of hail still piled up against the door of the restaurant. Anyway so we finish up and head north through Sylvan Lake and up the #20 Hwy.
About 20km outside of Sylvan we crest a hill and see down the road 2 cars stopped at the side of it. I also see stuff all over the road, as we get closer we can see its dirt. We slow down assuming a farm truck lost its load. As we get closer tho we start to see it, a truck off the road in the farmers field still smoking. We stop and run into the field, the people that had also stopped were running down the bank as well. We get down to the truck and find the worst thing you could ever imagine. The truck has obviously rolled a few times and the cab isjust crushed. We can see a guy in there, he is alert and can talk. Then I see the worst thing.....two guys in the field. I run over to one my brother to the other. I ask him what happend, how did he get here, did you crawl away? The guy has NO idea where he is, what happend and then I realize the worst, both of these guys have been ejected from the truck. They both flew about 30' from the truck, one is face down the other on his side. More and more cars start stopping and more people come to help. We checked vital signs as best we could but not having gloves it was tough. There was a lot of blood. Both people outside the truck were 21 and 23, both from Nova Scotia and had been here 3 weeks. We covered them in jackets and towels and tried to keep them alert. People stayed with the guy in the truck and we get the cutters from my truck and pried open the hood and cut the battery ground so nothing could ignite.
We were in the field with these guys for 30 minutes before the first rescue vehicles arrived. Its small town Alberta and middle of nowhere, in hindsight they were lucky they were so close to Sylvan Lake cause if this had been on the road to Fort Mack you wouldn't see them go off and rescue is hours away. Fire truck and ambulances began to arrive. The 23 year old on his side however had began to go into shock. He was slurring his words and coughing up a lot of blood. The 21 year old was face down and had shooting pains in his back. We cut his shirt off and he had bad marks and impact wounds all the way up it. He could however wiggle his toes so that was a good sign.
Jaws of life arrived and cut the guy in the truck out. If the truck had not been equipped with a headache rack he would have surely died. The cab was crushed all the way down to the window sill. The headache rack on the back of the cab acted like a roll over bar however and stopped the back seat area from being crushed flat. They eventually got him out and into an ambluance and off to Red Deer. The next out of the field was the 21 year old. He took a while stabalize but we eventually were able to carry him up. The 23 year old was really bad tho. He was slipping in and out and losing a lot of blood. We eventually got him onto a board and up the bank but he was in bad shape. They made the call to STARS the helicopter lifeflight to come in. 15 minutes later they arrived and put it down right on the highway. By this time tho the paramedics were shooting him with everything they could trying to keep him alive. STARS had to evaluate the guy he was in such bad condition to find out whether it was even worth taking him. Eventually they did but the fireman told us they had done everything they could for him, it was up to him to hold on for another 20 minutes til he was flown into Edmonton. There was talk of massive head trauma and most of the paramedics said his chances were slim.
We stuck around and helped clean up the scene with the police and firemen, we couldn't go anywhere due to our truck being basically in the middle of the whole mess, we had used it to block part of the highway. We finally got back into the truck my brother and I, I dont think we spoke more than 5 words the rest of our 4 hour drive. I was in complete shock and still am. When we were talking to the guy that was in the truck trapped he had said the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, the skid marks on the banked shoulder explained the rest of the events. He had tried to catch it and correct, but turning up the hill had led to the rear wheels sliding furhter down, eventually the truck ended up sideways, caught in the moist soil and began to roll.
The scariest thing is my brother and I had been talking on the way up about how close we have come a few times to falling asleep. Working 18-19 hour days driving 1200km's or more a day. I have caught myself on a couple of occassions taking the long 3 second blinks. I have taken cat naps more times than I can count on dirt roads off the highway for 20-30 minutes, and I have racked up major minutes talking to people on my phone just so I have somthing keeping me awake. We saw how easily this can happen and what the results were.
On our walk back up the bank to our truck we found the windshield, with blood on it, 200' from where the truck lay. Had the oil change tag on it and everything. The victims stuff was all over the place, wallets, change, lighters, cigs, clothes. All they were doing was just like we were, on their way to work for the day. Definetly has me still sick to my stomach.
I tried calling the paramedics to find out any news but they had not recieved any at the time. It bothers me in my gut, I dont want to know if this guy died because he will literally have died in our arms in a field, but I just want to hear that he is alright.
Definetly the worst day of work I have ever had.
I snapped these with my Treo while we were cleaning up....definetly a chilling reminder.
The truck after jaws of life cut the roof off. You can see the black headache rack
Here you can see the skid marks on the shoulder. The truck basically began to roll at the red corolla. The windshield is actually on the shoulder at the front on the corolla. They went a long way into the field, and are damn lukcy it didn't hit the hydro pole or it would have destroyed the cab.
STARS coming in to land on the highway
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/londar/Crash3.jpg[/img
If it's smoken it ain't broken
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