169: Jonathan took the wheel

What Was That Like - a storytelling podcast with amazing stories from real people

Do you know how you would react, in an emergency situation?

The first time I remember being put to the test with something like this is when I was 18 years old. I was just driving, by myself, on a sort of rural road here in Florida one morning. And as I drove down this road, I could see something odd up in the distance. It was a car, off the road – and it was upside down.

Probably most of us have approached accident scenes like this. You’ll see one or two cars that have obviously crashed into each other, and you see fire trucks, and police cars, and probably an ambulance or two, to take care of the injured people.

But as I approached this upside-down car, there was none of that. No emergency vehicles, no one walking around, just no activity at all. So, as I pulled over and got out of my car, I kind of assumed that this must have just happened. And 18-year-old me was thinking, I’m probably going to go over to this car, and find dead people inside. Or, people that might be still alive but they’re badly injured. And this was before cell phones so I couldn’t just call it in.

I walked over to the car and got down on my hands and knees and looked inside. And I was happy to find that there was no one in that car. Whoever was driving had apparently already left the scene. And a few minutes later, a state trooper rolled up. He told me that someone else had called it in an hour or so earlier, so he was there to check it out and make a report.

There were a lot of people who saw that car and just kept driving. And I get that – seeing or dealing with a potentially traumatic situation is not for everyone. Honestly I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with it either.

My guest today, Jonathan, was put into an emergency situation like that once. He was the passenger in a moving car when he noticed that the driver, his cousin Paul, had passed out. They were gaining speed.

And up ahead were pedestrians.

Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:

https://WhatWasThatLike.com/169

Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai.

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