I saw a dead person yesterday.
Well, I think it was a dead person. There was a blanket-covered human-sized lump lying on the freeway with stopped cars and police and bystanders orbiting it. My powers of deduction lead me to believe this was a dead person. It was too big to be a dog, there are no chimps around here, and I don't think a deer would warrant that kind of attention. If I had to guess, I would say someone was trying to cross the freeway, and didn't quite clear the SUV. Spontaneous freeway crossings are a bad idea anywhere, and especially dangerous here in the Motor City, home to some of the fastest and most aggressive drivers this side of Baja.
This may surprise some of you, but I really don't like seeing accidental deaths. I cringe when someone sends me a video of someone dying in some spectacular way. These things affect me for days. I had a bad experience watching "Faces of Death" as an impressionable adolescent, perhaps that is where it came from. Or maybe it was "Stand By Me", that disturbed me too.
I have seen at least two other dead people in my life, both encountered right after their respective "incidents". The first was in the 80's, I was working at my university over the summer, installing computer networks. One day I heard a loud noise and ran to see what it was. A semi-truck had been delivering something in the receiving dock and had struck a large beam on the building, which then fell onto the cab and crushed it like a pop can. I waited around for the fire department and watched as they slowly cut the guy out. He had a large red area on his head, which was also misshapen, and his skin was grey. Twenty five years old.
A few years after that I was driving down a road near my house and saw a motorcycle lying on its side off the road. I slowed down the car and saw the rider lying nearby, head bent in a very unnatural and non-life-supporting way. He had ridden off the road and hit a sign post.
My memory of those deaths doesn't seem to fade much as I get farther from them in time. I suppose I'll be adding this latest one to my mental Library of Death.
Well, I think it was a dead person. There was a blanket-covered human-sized lump lying on the freeway with stopped cars and police and bystanders orbiting it. My powers of deduction lead me to believe this was a dead person. It was too big to be a dog, there are no chimps around here, and I don't think a deer would warrant that kind of attention. If I had to guess, I would say someone was trying to cross the freeway, and didn't quite clear the SUV. Spontaneous freeway crossings are a bad idea anywhere, and especially dangerous here in the Motor City, home to some of the fastest and most aggressive drivers this side of Baja.
This may surprise some of you, but I really don't like seeing accidental deaths. I cringe when someone sends me a video of someone dying in some spectacular way. These things affect me for days. I had a bad experience watching "Faces of Death" as an impressionable adolescent, perhaps that is where it came from. Or maybe it was "Stand By Me", that disturbed me too.
I have seen at least two other dead people in my life, both encountered right after their respective "incidents". The first was in the 80's, I was working at my university over the summer, installing computer networks. One day I heard a loud noise and ran to see what it was. A semi-truck had been delivering something in the receiving dock and had struck a large beam on the building, which then fell onto the cab and crushed it like a pop can. I waited around for the fire department and watched as they slowly cut the guy out. He had a large red area on his head, which was also misshapen, and his skin was grey. Twenty five years old.
A few years after that I was driving down a road near my house and saw a motorcycle lying on its side off the road. I slowed down the car and saw the rider lying nearby, head bent in a very unnatural and non-life-supporting way. He had ridden off the road and hit a sign post.
My memory of those deaths doesn't seem to fade much as I get farther from them in time. I suppose I'll be adding this latest one to my mental Library of Death.
1 comment:
It's SUPPOSED to be disturbing to see death, especially accidental death. How reassuring that you cringe at these images.
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