Bad accident
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:40 pm
After Brian Laing and I left KH today, it was gorgeous t-shirt weather so we came home via the back roads. The police have statements and details, there will be no charges so probably better that I give the details rather than them coming out second hand.
About two miles from Edzell on an unclassified country road, Brian must have misjudged the corner and gone straight across the road and into a tree. when I stopped he was still in the car and making no attempt to get out. The offside door, wing and windscreen were buried in the tree, and the car was also in a ditch at an angle of 45degs. He was concious, but his face and chest were covered in blood and he could not move his arms. He had feeling in his back and legs, there was no arterial bleeding, no smell of petrol or signs of fire, but it was a bugger trying to get into him to check and stop the bleeding with bare feet, t-shirt and a body that does not work at the best of times.
There was a towel in the car, his ear looked bad, but it was hard to see whether he was bleeding from the chest, so I held a compress against his ear and it seemed to stop the bleeding, which gave me a chance to call an ambulance and the police. Another motorist stopped to help, so I was able to hand the phone over to him and help Brian. It looked as if his upper right arm was broken, and possibly his shoulder, and his left arm either broken or dislocated, so there was no way that I could get him out of the car, but everything else was stable, so better that he staid in. Fortunately the ambulance was not long in coming as they diverted it from another call.. Took quite a long time for them to check out Brian and stabilise him, but he had a snap on steering wheel which helped them in getting him out.
They got him out and onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, he was talking coherently, so no sign of any head injury other than the cuts. They put him on a morphine drip which gave me a chance to call his wife Isobel, and reassure her that he had had an accident but was OK. The police took quite a while to arrive, but they were good cops and did not make a drama out of a crisis. They started out trying to pin it down to excessive speed, which it wasn't, and when we backtracked the tyre marks, it looked as if he clipped a rock sticking out from the verge on the entry to the bend which unsettled the car, so he was not able to turn into the next left hander and went straight on into the tree.
Fortunately he slewed and hit the tree side on and not head on. Unfortunately it was the only effing tree in sight, without it he would have probably cleared the fence that was below road level, and landed flat on a nice grassy field.
Once he was wrapped up in the ambulance, I was able to call Isobel again, and though he could not move his arms, I could hold the phone to his good ear so that he could talk to her. Will get an update from her later, when she has seen him. They have taken him to Aberdeen ARI.
Not a mark on the nearside of the car, but not much left on the offside.
Bloody back is killing me now, but taken some painkillers and got the bottle of Laphroaig out.
tut
ps great session on track, warm as hell, and just a few short red flags.
About two miles from Edzell on an unclassified country road, Brian must have misjudged the corner and gone straight across the road and into a tree. when I stopped he was still in the car and making no attempt to get out. The offside door, wing and windscreen were buried in the tree, and the car was also in a ditch at an angle of 45degs. He was concious, but his face and chest were covered in blood and he could not move his arms. He had feeling in his back and legs, there was no arterial bleeding, no smell of petrol or signs of fire, but it was a bugger trying to get into him to check and stop the bleeding with bare feet, t-shirt and a body that does not work at the best of times.
There was a towel in the car, his ear looked bad, but it was hard to see whether he was bleeding from the chest, so I held a compress against his ear and it seemed to stop the bleeding, which gave me a chance to call an ambulance and the police. Another motorist stopped to help, so I was able to hand the phone over to him and help Brian. It looked as if his upper right arm was broken, and possibly his shoulder, and his left arm either broken or dislocated, so there was no way that I could get him out of the car, but everything else was stable, so better that he staid in. Fortunately the ambulance was not long in coming as they diverted it from another call.. Took quite a long time for them to check out Brian and stabilise him, but he had a snap on steering wheel which helped them in getting him out.
They got him out and onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, he was talking coherently, so no sign of any head injury other than the cuts. They put him on a morphine drip which gave me a chance to call his wife Isobel, and reassure her that he had had an accident but was OK. The police took quite a while to arrive, but they were good cops and did not make a drama out of a crisis. They started out trying to pin it down to excessive speed, which it wasn't, and when we backtracked the tyre marks, it looked as if he clipped a rock sticking out from the verge on the entry to the bend which unsettled the car, so he was not able to turn into the next left hander and went straight on into the tree.
Fortunately he slewed and hit the tree side on and not head on. Unfortunately it was the only effing tree in sight, without it he would have probably cleared the fence that was below road level, and landed flat on a nice grassy field.
Once he was wrapped up in the ambulance, I was able to call Isobel again, and though he could not move his arms, I could hold the phone to his good ear so that he could talk to her. Will get an update from her later, when she has seen him. They have taken him to Aberdeen ARI.
Not a mark on the nearside of the car, but not much left on the offside.
Bloody back is killing me now, but taken some painkillers and got the bottle of Laphroaig out.
tut
ps great session on track, warm as hell, and just a few short red flags.
Geez that's a bad one I hope he's Ok and has a sppedy recovery should anything be wrong.. Hope your not to shaken up Tut? Thinking of you both..
That sounds like a sore one, keep us up to date Tut and get well soon Brian.