Just saw a dead guy

[Lee_B]

Some poor sod got hit by a van while crossing the road outside my office. The police station is only 50 yards away, so they were quick on the scene, but they left the guy in the road with just a blanket over his face for a couple of hours or so while they did all their CSI stuff. They eventually took him away in an ambulance, but there was a huge blood stain on the road which, as I type, is being cleaned away now.

This sort of thing makes you think about your own mortality (it does for me, anyway). This guy was probably crossing the road to get a sandwich for lunch, and now he's history. Weird.

 

[JayKeeley]

Wow. Did they arrest the van driver?

 

[Lee_B]

Didn't see. The van was still there though. It was a big pick up with an HSS logo on the side (a company that rents tools for builders, etc). It was possibly his fault as it was an official crossing. You get a lot of pedestrians who don't wait for the lights and just run for it though. I've done it myself many times. Not anymore!

 

[lizard]

no more sandwiches for me!

 

[Tide In Mind Out]

sucky.

i try to be careful and always wait for the signals but even so i've come close to being hit by idiots just barreling down the road not paying attention/not caring.

 

[NAD]

That sucks. I watched some dude get in a wreck and flip his truck, ejecting him out of the vehicle, in an intersection that's been part of the daily routine for many years. Really makes you feel weird for a bit.

 

[lurch70]

when I was in Romania I saw a guy get cut in half by a tram ... literally saw him get taken out in 2 pieces from under it, thrown in black plastic bags and taken away.

 

[Ayeka]

Oooooh, nasty!

And there's me walking on the side of a dual-carriageway on my way home from work cos I didn't feel like going to long way...stick to just doing that at 1am methinks...

 

[Jim LotFP]

Why do people pay attention to crosswalks and crossing signals and everything like that when crossing the road?

I don't drive. I've never had a drivers license. I am a chronic pedestrian.

You know what I pay attention to when crossing streets?

Fucking CARS.

Crosswalks can't run you over (although they can kill you if you believe they are some sort of magic protection).

Crossing signals can't run you over (although they can kill you if you believe they are some sort of magic protection... or in the States, they kill you 100% of the time if you EVER cross when they tell you to... I think US crossing signals are a government-funded population reduction program).

Cars can run you over, kill you, and generally make your life miserable. When crossing streets... LOOK OUT FOR THE CARS, ALWAYS assume EVERY car is having their own Deathrace 2000, and don't even assume the friggin sidewalk will protect you from drivers and their deathmobiles.

Any pedestrian who considers right-of-way laws instead of moving hunks of metal when crossing the road is an idiot asking to be hit.

 

[AsModEe]

Seeing someone dying in front of you must be wicked freaky.

 

[Crimson Velvet]

Worst related thing I've ever seen was when I was in Russia about elleven or twelve years back. A police officer shot a guy at a market that had stolen something from a booth. A mob proceeded to storm the police officer and his partner, forcing them into their car. Then they flipped the car over and sat it on fire. I saw it all from a restaurant. I couldn't speak for like two days and just had to go home. I still have nightmares about it. It was the event that led me to a life of pacifism. Absolutely horrifying.

 

[dill_the_devil]

I was in a taxi with my g/f on the way home from a rock club one weekend, and we went past this road accident. There was a white van that was on it's side, and there was a dude caught between the road and the van - he'd been flung half out of the driver's side window, then the van toppled over on him and crushed him, so the top half of his body was sticking out fron under the van. That was EERRIWWWEEDSS...

 

[Tide In Mind Out]

heard on the radio and the news this morning that a local farmer in our town died after being caught between his tractor and hay baler out in a field. haven't said how he was injured so ya can only imagine

 

[Lee_B]

I just heard some more about this.

Apparently it was suicide. The guy had been arrested earlier in the day for trying to jump in front of cars next to St Pauls cathedral up the road. For whatever reason he was released, and it seems he finally got it right..

It stinks for the poor bastard driving the van though.

 

[Russell]

Also stinks for the poor guy who felt he had to throw himself in front of a van

 

[lurch70]

this thread is a real downer and needs to be derailed pronto ...

 

[lizard]

yeah. let's start posting pics of fuzzy duckings and fierce kittens!!

 

[Lee_B]

Also stinks for the poor guy who felt he had to throw himself in front of a van

I think I'd be a bit more sympathetic if he hadn't ruined a complete stranger's life in the process...

Any more pics of kittens going?

 

[lizard]

 

[Mormagil]