This mans a national hero - hope he gets an award as he deserves it!

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I take my hat off to his wife actually. I can't imagine what it would have been like for her on the end of that phone...
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
Top marks for train driver.
Not wishibng to hijack thread, but following Kirstie's post, I (last year) came upon a road accident at night, in wet windy weather, country road I was driving down by mistake (having taken a wrong turning). Guy was by side of road, waved me down and his car was wrapped round a tree, engine still going. Though conscious, he was in a bad way, shaking, blood everywhere, quite frantic and needed calming down. I got a travel blanket from my car (I always have 1 or 2 knocking around in the boot), sat him down and phoned ambulance... (who duly came, along with police, etc and took him off to hospital...). Anyway (he was also p!$$ed as a fart, silly sod) while waiting for ambulance he asked me to phone his wife... turns out they'd recently separated, and he'd been drowning his sorrows... that was a difficult phone call, and I sensed that though she was clearly worried and a bit upset, she was also taking it as confirmation that she'd been right to kick him out! She also needed some reassurance that I wasn't a mate of his...!
(BTW, police spotted straight away that he was drunk, and presumably dealt with him accordingly).
 

papercorn2000

Senior Member
That's a difficult one Fnarr. IME, I 've been at incidents where someone was cut out of a car, stinking of drink but unconscious. In those cases, he can't be breathalysed and can't give consent to the taking of a blood sample. It is up to the doctor when he gets to hospital whether or not he is fit to have blood taken (If I remember). And in cases like this, saving the guys life is the priority and, by the time there's an opportunity to take blood for a sample, the level of alcohol in the sample is too low to prosecute.
It's then up to the police on the scene to submit a report. However, all they have is that the guy is stinking of drink. Any erratic behaviour is easily (by a defence counsel) written off as shock due to the accident.
 
Following on from Fnaars post - I've been in the situation myself, but actually present at the accident. A few years ago, my other half crashed off his mtb, breaking his jaw in 3 places and dislocating and fracturing his elbow. All I could do was call the ambulance, after finding him face down in a massive pool of blood, go with him in the helicopter to hospital, and listen to his screams of pain when they moved him, watch him lying there shudding with shock as they cut his clothes off him and reasure him as he was absolutely terrified. It was the worst day of my life.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Kirstie said:
Following on from Fnaars post - I've been in the situation myself, but actually present at the accident. A few years ago, my other half crashed off his mtb, breaking his jaw in 3 places and dislocating and fracturing his elbow. All I could do was call the ambulance, after finding him face down in a massive pool of blood, go with him in the helicopter to hospital, and listen to his screams of pain when they moved him, watch him lying there shudding with shock as they cut his clothes off him and reasure him as he was absolutely terrified. It was the worst day of my life.

Horrible. But at least you could do something, and did, and I assume, he's OK now? Cling to the positive.

Being too late to do anything. That's the worst.
 
Arch said:
Horrible. But at least you could do something, and did, and I assume, he's OK now? Cling to the positive.

Being too late to do anything. That's the worst.

Well kind of, yes. I got very good at mushy food and smoothies as his jaw was wired together for 9 weeks. I now have two blenders as a result.

FWIW I spend my entire life clinging to the positive...
 
papercorn2000 said:
That's a difficult one Fnarr. IME, I 've been at incidents where someone was cut out of a car, stinking of drink but unconscious. In those cases, he can't be breathalysed and can't give consent to the taking of a blood sample. It is up to the doctor when he gets to hospital whether or not he is fit to have blood taken (If I remember). And in cases like this, saving the guys life is the priority and, by the time there's an opportunity to take blood for a sample, the level of alcohol in the sample is too low to prosecute.
It's then up to the police on the scene to submit a report. However, all they have is that the guy is stinking of drink. Any erratic behaviour is easily (by a defence counsel) written off as shock due to the accident.




Well I suppose I work at the sharp end of these accidents and have seen many of these on the operating table.

Not sure about doctors taking blood samples. As we had a patient and the Anaesthetic Doctor was asked by a police officer to take a blood sample before any blood was given to the patient.

The doctor refused as he was not trained to take samples for evidence by the police, and if the police wanted a sample they would have to get a police surgeon (this is a doctor that works for the police).

Well this patient was in a critical condition and needed blood fast, so there was no time to get in the police surgeon. To say the police were not happy was an understatement.
 

papercorn2000

Senior Member
Sore Thumb said:
Well I suppose I work at the sharp end of these accidents and have seen many of these on the operating table.

Not sure about doctors taking blood samples. As we had a patient and the Anaesthetic Doctor was asked by a police officer to take a blood sample before any blood was given to the patient.

The doctor refused as he was not trained to take samples for evidence by the police, and if the police wanted a sample they would have to get a police surgeon (this is a doctor that works for the police).

Well this patient was in a critical condition and needed blood fast, so there was no time to get in the police surgeon. To say the police were not happy was an understatement.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Collecting evidence takes a back seat when someone's life is in the balance.
 
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