This one morning - a couple of minutes after I arrived at work - a woman (a British tourist) was hit by a bus just outside our office. I didn't see when she was hit but moments later the streets were filled with ambulances and police cars. Our offices is on the fourth floor and we could look down on her while the paramedics were trying to resuscitate her (doing CPR and Defibrillation). She was bleeding terribly and blood was everywhere. It was the most horrifying thing I've ever witnessed with my own eyes. No movie even comes close to this. We learned about an hour later that she died. Poor woman. Such a tragedy.

Just had to get that out.

Rob

Wow. Your workplace should offer debriefing to you and your colleagues. It might be something that will stick with a few of you for awhile.

I was on a train once that was spending an awfully long time stopped at a station. I saw the train driver wandering around on the platform, talking to someone on his mobile phone, so I got off the train and asked what was going on and he said the train had decapitated somebody twenty metres down the track. A few people went and checked it out and when they came back they said that the head had been separated from the body etc. I didn't bother to look.

Another time a van crashed across the road from a place I was at and we went outside to check it out. There was an unconscious guy in the front seat. Somebody called the paramedics, but by the time they got there he was gone. In fact he was probably dead on impact.

Sorry to hear about that. It's one thing to see and write about things of that nature, but in real life, a completely different matter.

Seen that happen a few times myself at work; car crash, motorcycle crash right outside our shop. Always a sobering experience.

Joe

This could turn into a very bleak thread about tradgic stories if were not careful, I've never been careful so...

About 10 years ago, on my way to work, I saw a car crash.  It was on the other side of the road but right next to me, a car pulled out of a junction onto a fast part of the road and was hit full on in the side causing it to flip over about 4 times.  it was the most shocking thing I ever saw, the sheer impact damage and the sound of screaching tyres and crunching metal.  I was shaking when I arrived at work and later found out the car had 3 occupants, a father, mother and infant, sadly they all died at the scene.

Some things look amazing on the screen but in real life can be truely disturbing.

I've seen quite a few people die. I drive about 3000 mi/month so I see a lot of accidents, but also from having worked in a hospital and my husband's and my own hobbies, aerobatic flying and horseback riding. It is quite different in real life than on film. Even a plain old fist fight is different in real life. You can feel the tension and smell the adrenaline and that makes your own body go into high alert. So, yes I agree it's quite different in real life.

Geez, Rob, that's tragic. You'd think society stops when something like this happens but work, school, life goes on.

I never saw anyone die, I've never had anyone I know die one me, except one time when I took the bus to school and we passed an intersection where a woman lay in front of another bus bleeding everywhere. People were standing over her and she looked unconscious. She looked dead. My bus passed the accident site and I went to school.

The next day they had scrubbed the blood off the tarmac so we didn't have to be reminded.

Geez.  You'd think so many of us wouldn't have seen people die - although I guess it's not surprising...

When I was fifteen I was on a student exchange in Scotland and saw a man simply collapse headfirst onto the pavement as he got off the bus.  He started bleeding from the fall, and about an hour later we found out that he had been dead almost the second he fell.

Unfortunate how clear such memories remain.

Wow, it seems like I've never seen anyone die. I've seen small crashes and what not, but nothing fatal...

I saw a man burn to death last month. He was trapped in his car after a bad accident. I don't want to sound disrespectful, but it was kinda neat.No, I'm not sick in the head or anything. I just think that it was kinda cool that I could continue my day with out any problems and I was able to eat and sleep.

~Zack~

Quoted from Zack I saw a man burn to death last month. He was trapped in his car after a bad accident. I don't want to sound disrespectful, but it was kinda neat.No, I'm not sick in the head or anything. I just think that it was kinda cool that I could continue my day with out any problems and I was able to eat and sleep. ~Zack~

That does kinda sound...disrespectful. You think it's a GOOD thing that you were unaffected by watching a man burn to death?

A human being died before you eyes, for pete's sake.

I'll ditto that!

There's nothing cool or neat about someone dying, especially not in a horrific way. Think of her family and friends...

I didn't know the dude, so it really didn't make me feel bad. I know I should have felt bad, but I can't change my feelings. I don't think it was nat that he died, I think it was neat hat it had no effect on me. Sorry, but those are my feelings...

~Zack~

Truth is, death is a very depressing experience. More so when it comes suddenly. When my great Grandpa died I was sad at first, but he went out peacefully and I knew it was coming. He was 85 years old.  

It was three years ago and it was the first funeral I had ever attended. I found my heart beating faster when I laid my eyes on his corpse, but over time the feeling faded. I know he died peacefully and that is what matters. I got over his death quickly because even though I loved him, he along with everyone else knew it was gonna happen sooner rather than later. He didn't get sick or anything. He simply died of old age. I would like to go out like that, after living a complete, full life.

But the death of a stranger was much tougher for me. I actually saw a man drown in the beach when I was 11 years old. People were trying to recue him.

Afterwards, I was extremely shocked at how a drowning victim looked like. It's not just a dude with his eyes closed like in a movie, you can literally see the suffering he went through printed on his face. It was horrible and I still remember it to this day. I remember my dad tried to shake it off, pretending he didn't see it and getting me further from the site.  Up until now he doesn't know I actually saw the man drown (he wasn't around when he was drowning, only later).  

Afterwards, my mother mentioned she read in the papers that the guy was only 22 years old. I felt all shitty for about three days.