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Hidden Costs
We had to extricate a driver from a crash early this morning. Two people, both intoxicated (possibly also meth included) crashed into a tree on a rural road. The passenger was transported by ambulance but it took us over an hour to cut the driver out. As often happens, his feet were trapped under the dashboard. Typically, we can push the dashboard up with hydraulic tools but, in this case, he was pushed into a tree in exactly the wrong spot. We had to winch the car away from the tree and still cut it to bits to get him out. The driver had broken his right femur, tibia, and fibula, and had a concussion and serious chest injuries. The passenger was almost as bad.
Now, for the hidden costs: three fire departments took part with hydraulic tools (Jaws of Life). Two of the responders were from the county seat and are paid, but the other seven were volunteers. Two fully staffed ambulances were on scene from our county; I believe that only people who are not residents of the county get billed for services but ALS ambulance operations are not cheap. There were five LEOs helping (deputies and one trooper), and one medical helicopter. The helicopter is the only piece of the response which will probably be completely paid for. Keep in mind that all of the deputies tied up were unavailable for any other duties, just as was true for the four pieces of fire apparatus, all because someone wanted to drive home after imbibing. We talk about the cost of this stuff all the time but rarely consider the second-order costs.
Published in General
My son, who is now a firefighter, was a fire explorer scout when he was 17. He went along in a response to a car wreck on a new street that had just opened near Mission Viejo CA. A drunk had used it as a race course and lost control. He was not injured but the accident had started a brush fire. My son was fighting the brush fire when he slid down a slope that was muddy and encountered a dead woman who had been ejected from the car. The drunken driver had forgotten he had a passenger. Pretty intense experience for a kid. He is now an engineer with Calfire.
I ran a trauma center in Orange County CA for years. Lots of stories. I wrote a book about some of them some years ago.
https://www.amazon.com/War-Stories-50-Years-Medicine-ebook/dp/B00ZQLNHXU/
I had a 3 year old whose drunken father had him on his lap driving. Crushed between the wheel and the father.
Yeah. My father was a policeman. I grew up hearing about these sorts of things. There’s a lot of stupid and ugly out there in the world.
The doctor who was medical control, and who told the EMTs to discontinue the code on my first beloved husband was a family friend. He didn’t know who his patient was until the EMTs came to the hospital a little later. He was devastated. A year later, he was on deck when my dad arrived with what turned out to be a fatal heart attack. The great thing about living in small community is that you know everyone. The bad thing about living in a small community is that you know everyone.
The people who are drawn to this kind of work are generally self-selected and, in the case of police officers at least, screened for their ability to process “bad stuff.” (“Critical incident stress” is cumbersome, and “trauma” doesn’t seem quite right either…).
In Maine, increasingly, police officers are given training in how to take care of their bodies after an event, whether or not they believe it has affected them.
When training new members of one of the states’ Peer Support/Critical Incident teams, I go through the neurophysiology of critical incident stress, and ask: “How do we know that a first responder’s brain and body changed when he or she was confronted with this critical incident?” (Think: horrible car accident, guy with a gun, guy with a “gun”, screaming woman, fire, explosion, etc.)
The answer is: Because the first responder did his job.
My shorthand for the cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones is “hero chemistry.” You’re bathing in it, dear Tex. It’s great stuff, and I am awed and grateful by what good men and women are willing and able to do with it, but it is hard on your body.
So use your chaplain. Use your CISM team.
Along with “drink plenty of water” and “use your tactical breathing” and whatnot, I generally remind my guys to avoid violent movies or television shows for at least 72 hours after a call like the one you’ve described. “This is a good time for those chick flicks,” I said once, back when we first started doing this.
One of the older guys shook his head. “My wife doesn’t let me watch those,” he said sadly.
I was once caring for a woman who had been involved in a single vehicle accident. She was very pregnant and, when we had lost her, we tried to save the baby. The anthesthesiologist who was involved in the case commented that she was quite dark in complexion and must not be “from around here.” He also objected to the efforts to revive this obviously unsalvageable case. Then the obstetrician who was trying to help us save the baby found the woman’s drivers’ license.
She was an Indian ethnic physician and the anesthesiologist’s sister. He was also a dark complected Indian and had not recognized his sister.
I also practiced 40 years in a relatively small community.
what would be high enough penalty?
The costs from Drunk Driving. Okay. I wasn’t sure which costs you were referring to
I laughed.
Honestly, IMHO, nothing seems to stop the vast majority of drunk drivers from doing it again. I frequently read of fatal crashes where a driver has multiple convictions but is drunk behind the wheel again, licensed or not. Jail time works but only as long as the actor is incarcerated.
Lots of that category are illegal immigrants.
I think we should bring back flogging for repeat offenders.
So, a family member of the driver complained that the reason for the crash was unknown. Except that the deputy sergeant told me that the first deputies on scene said the driver was still drinking from a cup with alcohol in it – as well as glass and blood. Waiting to hear from the trooper who supervised the blood draw at the hospital. I suspect the family is very scared of a lawsuit by the passenger’s family.
To emphasize how rural/small town this is is all, I was the deputy sergeant’s Algebra 1 teacher.
For anyone who saw this conversation, the driver was indicted for intoxication manslaughter. Took over two years but it finally caught up to him.
When I took the local papers, what I regularly read was about no DL, couldn’t speak English, no proof of insurance. Will the sheriff get reelected? You betcha!