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Please don't let a ... person ... like that change who you are. I'm the same as you, been first on scene at an RTA, with decisions to make and actions to take, though it was rather a major one ...
In my case, I came across a three car crash on a wet country road at night, raining heavily. I put my car 100 yards one direction, hazards on, car at 30 degrees or so, so that emergency services could get past, but it made it obvious that the road was closed, but there was light to work with. When another driver came along, from the opposite direction, I got him to do the same.
The accident wasn't a good one. First that I came to was dead woman on the side of the road, early 20s, thrown from what was described as car 1. Obviously fatal, so placed my coat over her. Then came up to what was called car 2, cuts/bruises on both front seat people, driver had a disclocated shoulder, but both conscious. I tell them to sit tight, stay where they are, help is on the way. Then car 1 itself. Driver (male, 18 years), still in his seat, not a mark on him, but not breathing, no pulse. Myself and the second person on scene decide that if he's staying in the seat, then he's dead, so we've got to get him out to do CPR.
So we do, and start working on him in the road, in the rain. The other person goes off to a house 1/4 mile off to call ambulance and give details of casualties, and when he comes back we just carry on with CPR until they arrive, probably 15 minutes. Then they pack him up for the trip to hospital, other ambulances arrive with police, and the other casualties and the fatal are dealt with by them, and initial statements are taken from us by police. That driver of car 1 died too, turned out he had a ruptured aorta, so all we'd been doing was pumping blood into the chest cavity.
Wondering about car 3 ?
After that lot, I'm standing 50 yards away, gathering my thoughts and getting my head together, when I notice tyre tracks in the grass verge. So I put on the torch that the policewoman gave me, and I can see another car in the ditch. Shout to the police, and head down there. Two more fatalities in there, from when the car hit a tree head-on after leaving the road. One live, but injured, girl in kiddie seat in the back.
The cause of all that carnage ? Car 1 (a Vauxhall Nova) had 3 bald tyres. Took a bend, lost control, went side-on into the front of car 2 (a Sierra). Car 3 (Cavalier), coming up behind car 2, braked, skidded in the wet, left the road, and hit the tree.
End result : 4 dead. The police reckoned it would have been 5 by the morning.
So you do what you feel is right. You block a road to deal with a casualty if you feel you need to. Because it's nice and easy for someone to second-guess the decisions that you had to make in an instant.
Edited by RobJP on 25/08/2015 at 22:52
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