I normally work 9:30am to 6:30pm on Wednesdays as I did this one. But Jag (chief photog) asked if I wanted to stay through the 11pm because one of our other photogs was sick. I said sure. After editing some miscellaneous stuff for the early shows, Tony and I decided to head out to Tiffin for our nightside story. As we headed south on I-75, I asked which way would be the best to get to Tiffin. We eventually decided to take I-75 south and get off on Route 6 heading east. No problem. We got to Route 6 and headed east towards Tiffin. We were behind a semi truck for most of the way. We had been travelling down Route 6 for about twenty minutes. Tony was looking down at his PDA when I realized something wasn't right. It's hard to describe because I hadn't seen anything yet. I just knew something wasn't normal. Then about 100 feet ahead I saw a minivan jolt out across the other lane, roll over twice, slam into the corn stalks on the side of the road, and come to a rest, rightside up, smoke pouring out. It was one of those things your brain couldn't quite process quickly enough. I saw the whole thing happen, but I still didn't believe what I saw. The truck in front of me slowed down and pulled over. I pulled around him, off to the side and jumped out of the Jeep. Tony immediately dialed 911 and I ran towards the minivan. While I crossed the street the man from the other vehicle involved was getting out of his Durango, limping, on his cellphone saying "I was just involved in a bad car accident. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault." He had blood on his leg and on his shirt. He walked around to the back of his vehicle and sat on the bumper, clearly in shock. He eventually slowly sank down to the pavement until he was sitting down in the street. I remember seeing all that in slow motion. As I walked towards the minivan I remember seeing two purses, a baseball hat, CD's, and other items in the grass. Because my brain was still trying to process the whole chain of events, I remember wondering why all this stuff was on the side of the road. I thought it was all litter. I still hadn't realized it came from the minivan. As I approached the minivan, there was the body of a younger woman lying next to it. She was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and green pants and was lying in an abnormal fetal position. I crouched down to try to speak to her and ask her if she was okay. I didn't want to touch her or move her in case she had a spinal injury. By now there was another man who had come over to try and talk to her. He tapped her on the foot with his shoe saying "Ma'am, are you okay?" Then there was this moment where we both stood up and stared at her. I stared at her chest and stomach, hoping for any signs of movement. The moment seemed like an eternity but it only lasted a few seconds. Then there was this feeling we both got almost instantly. It's a hard feeling to describe. It's a feeling you get when you know life has left a body. You just know it. We both looked at each other and said, "She's dead, isn't she." The other man turned around and shouted to his friend, "I think she's dead!" I think I had a small internal panic attack because my brain was finally beginning to process what we had witnessed in the last 2 minutes. By now we could hear the comforting sound of sirens in the distance. It's strange because the sound of sirens is usually a scary sound, but in this case I wanted to hear it. I ran back across the street to tell Tony that the woman was already dead. "Are you serious? Oh my God," he said. He had already called 911 and our newsroom to tell Lindsay, our producer, what had happened. When I turned back around to face the minivan again, the man and his friend had found a white sheet in their truck and were putting it over her body. I couldn't believe what had happened. By now, Tony and I realized this was probably going to be our story for the night, but neither of us felt comfortable about it. I certainly didn't want to get my camera out and roll on any of it. As journalists, we go to accidents all the time and some of them involve fatalities. But this was a situation that neither he nor I would ever expect to be in and honestly, I had to push my job responsibilites aside. I remember feeling sick to my stomach. I felt like throwing up. By now most of the emergency crews had arrived and were down by the minivan. We were across the street now, pacing back and forth, talking with the driver of the truck that was in front of us. He was a very nice man who was just as shocked as we were. We were getting confused because there were about seven firefighters and EMS workers towards the back of the minivan near the cornfield. Then one of the other bystanders walked by and said "There's another body behind the minivan!" Oh my God. There was another body that was ejected and we had no idea when we were over there. I remember feeling like we should've known and should've tried to help her too. But how could we have known? Pretty soon Life Flight showed up, hovered over the scene, and landed right down the street. While this was happening one of the state troopers was performing CPR on the lady we had found. They were hoping for any sign of life. Unfortunately, then didn't find any, stopped what they were doing, and covered her back up with the sheet. I remember feeling sick again when I saw that because it confirmed our original fears of her being dead. Paramedics eventually took the second body to Life Flight and took off. The trooper told us the second body had a pulse but was non-responsive. By now I had my camera out and was reluctantly getting shots of what was happening. Usually when we arrive at the scene of an accident, we have a routine we go through as journalists. This time was different however because we felt a strong connection to what was happening and the journalistic "wall" was not there. We were a part of what had happened. We were witnesses. We ran up and tried to help.
We interviewed the truck driver who was in front of us and then interviewed the state trooper. The trooper said neither one of the women was wearing her seatbelt. Tony then interviewed me because I actually saw the minivan flip over and ran to help out. When we left the scene to head back to the station we didn't talk much. We both called our loved ones because that's what you do when you see something like this. It's strange to think that those two women were probably laughing and joking down the street, thirty seconds before they pulled out into traffic. And just like that, the one woman's life is over. Just like that. Unbelievable. The whole night didn't seem real. But it was.
-T
Below is the video of the package Tony and I put together that night. We tried to turn it into a first person perspective.
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And on a happier note, here are the weekly pictures. Hopefully they'll make you smile.
