A reminder to be ready for anything while driving.

[jhelms]

Man Killed After Running Onto I-25 In Denver

cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_117074958.html

I got caught up in this. I was heading north on I-25 when I became aware that something just happened ahead of me. All of a sudden my lane opens up and I see a body right in front of me. I braked, swerved to the right, then back to the left and came to a stop about 30 feet from the body. I missed hitting it by about a foot or two. That spot didn't seem protected, so I just turned on my hazards and waited for the police. About a quarter of the way into the video, you see a car sitting by itself with its flashers on. That's my A4. Just behind it is the body covered with a sheet. Just after that in the video is a modded black Civic with a carbon fiber wing and a 9 Second Racing sticker on the rear side window. He was going south and wrecked trying to avoid hitting the guy (probably homeless) along with a pick-up with a trailer and a small SUV. The Honda caught the worst of it damage-wise. The guy crossed west to east and when he entered the North-bound lane a guy in a truck took him out. I hung out for about an hour and 1/2 answering questions and writing out my statement. Some of the other witnesses wondered how I could've maneuvered like I did and not hit anybody else because the lanes were packed. I wanted to say "Mad skilz, Yo!" but to be honest, I don't really know. I don't believe that anybody was seriously hurt other than the homeless guy himself. The guy who hit him had his whole family in the truck with him including a young daughter. It's probably going to be rough on her for a while. I drove the rest of the way home in total silence.

[jhelms]

The previous post was copied from one I made in the local Audi enthusiast forum. I received a lot of general "glad you're OK" responses. What else do you say, right? Anyway, I do really appreciate their posts, they are all great guys, but it prompted me to respond with the following post:

"Thanks for all the good thoughts guys.

At first, I thought that since I didn't actually hit anybody I was basically a witness and it wouldn't really phaze me all that much. The truth is it's been on my mind a lot today. I feel bad for the guy that died, but I also feel for the guy who hit him. For the dead guy, it's basically over. The other guy and his family are going to have to learn how to deal with it even though it was an accident he couldn't avoid. I don't know how old his daughter is, I just hope she is young enough to not remember it down the road."

This event is beginning to have a more profound affect on me than I had originally expected. You guys be sure to take care of yourselves.

[Kristine]

Wow, Jeff. I can sort of imagine how you feel. I was driving home from work one day and there had been an accident on I95. It was still being investigated so nothing had been cleaned up yet, including the body of a person on the side of the road (it was just covered with a yellow blanket). That vision bothered me for a couple days. What you went through, Jeff, having actually almost hit the body and seeing it uncovered, had to be quite unnerving. You make sure you take care of yourself, too.

[jhelms]

Thanks Kristine! I will.

[Clark]

I was the first guy to the car one time after a bad accident. Old guy in the passenger seat had part of his scull on the windshield and his head swelled up like someone had put a baseball under the skin , to top it off he was making this horrible noise as he tried to breath...

I had nightmares for about 2 months..

God Bless EMT and Firefighters, I would NEVER want to see anything like that with any regularity..

[Bob Lombardi]

What a traumatic story that is. When I still lived in Florida, I drove a tow truck for the turnpike. As I was pulling into the service center, an accident had just occurred in front of me. An elderly man had veered off of the ramp to the service center and tried to correct himself. The accident resulted in him sliding sideways, perpendicular at the driver door, into the guardrail. He was extracted, dead, from the trunk. That was 22 years ago and I still remember it quite vividly. I have seen a couple more dead bodies after that (One of them was a mutilated girl dumped on the side of the road by her killer), but none has the same impression as the first. Seriously, you may want to seek some counseling before the incident becomes etched into your minds eye like it did to me. Good luck and God bless.

[jhelms]

Yeah, it was actually my third dead body. However, it was by far the closest I've been to it or the event. I was quickly on the scene of two fatal accidents on US-1 in Ft. Pierce. In one of them, I was working at the Rose Auto when a biker was trying to leave the Donut Circus next door. He got clipped by one car and then ran over by another. I heard the accident from inside the store and went out to see what had happened.

In the other one, there were some young people in a red Mitsubishi Mirage that were hit head-on just south of Edwards Rd. I saw it because I lived close by. This scene included burned flesh and a decapitation via open sun roof. Evidently the passenger in the back seat was not wearing a seat belt.

I didn't get very close to either of these accidents, so they don't seem to have the impact on me as this latest one.