Fatality... RIP old woman

Tonight my heart took a hammering and the adrenaline was on high. An elderly woman was killed in my street after been hit and run over by a car.

I had just finished my dinner at my local Denny's when outside my attention was caught by a commotion. On closer inspection a woman lay firmly centred underneath a large Nissan sedan. It appears the car hit her, she fell and then the wheel crossed her body.

No one could do anything. The car needed to be moved, she was stuck underneath so driving it would have made the situation worse. There were no obvious signs of life. Whilst I surveyed the scene to see what had happened and reassured by the sounds of sirens of the rescue tenders approaching from north, east, south and west fire stations I stood back to watch what would happen next. It was pointless me getting anymore involved. It was a panic situation and all the other 'panicers' didn't speak my language and I didn't speak theirs. I think I made the sensible decision not to intervene as there would have been no value I could have added to the situation.

The arrival of the fire department was something they must have been rehearsing for a while. Four fire tenders pulled up from each of the cities four fire stations. One tender was a specialist rescue truck complete with crane and a lighting system. An ambulance arrived at the same time.

The rescue personnel went to work right away and with their whizz-bang equipment and skill they jacked the car and wheeled it aside. At that stage, from my view point, it was obvious the woman was deceased. Her head had no resemblance to its' former self. It was floppy and lifeless on the neck. It was obvious to me the emergency crew were putting on a show for the crowd in terms of attempting a form of CPR to whisk her away to the ambulance. The emergency folks were very professional and preserved the woman's dignity the whole time.

Been having a big reflection tonight since the accident happened. It's been over 12 months since I had to use any of my emergency medical skills, and there definitely has been no calling for them in Japan. I often worry I'll forget at least the basic stuff but being in the environment tonight has restored my confidence again that if there was a situation different to tonight I could make a difference.