Terrible Incident Last Night

Just in case anyone's thinking I've gone crackers (possible!) Ertie and I had an horrific experience last night, and it's left me feeling sick all day.

Very quickly, we went out to see some friends last night who live in Banstead (about 5 miles away from where we live) and on the way back in the car we were driving through some country type lanes. Anyway, it was about one in the morning, and the road we were driving along is very long with trees and fields etc, although there are houses dotted here and there. But we came to a stretch of road that is narrow and winding with just trees and you need to put your headlights on full beam, and suddenly we saw a dead body laying in the middle of the road.

We had to pull up sharply as that part of the road is quite narrow, and the man was laying in the middle of the road. We knew he was dead straightaway - we could just tell (felt it, too - if that makes sense) and he'd obviously been hit by a car and killed. It was horrific - I shan't go into the detail - but his head injuries were horrific and you could see everything, and he'd lost all his blood I would say. He was only young, too - 20's/30's?

There was one car stopped further up and the man standing by it looked in a state, but I couldn't get out the car as I froze. We had to manoeuvre the car around the man's body - that was horrible. Ertie started saying 'Allah' and stuff, he was horrified too - it was just so awful and hearbreaking seeing the man laying there like that. The man got a blanket thing from the boot of his car to cover the man's top half up in case anyone else saw him in that state, and Ertie asked if there was anything else we could do for the victim, but of course, he was just in shock and didn't know what to do, I suppose. It was probably worse being so dark and with that part of the road being all full of trees etc. Poor man - it was so horrifying and so upsetting.

Of course, me being me, I couldn't get to sleep with that image in my head, and luckily I've had to work all day, but as soon as I stopped, the image came back again. It will fade, though. We just feel so sorry for the man and his family, but at least it would have been instant and he wouldn't have known a thing.

It was just a terrible thing to see, and so sad. I'm ashamed to say, it was eerie too.

Poor man - what a waste. Ertie kept saying about his family - he took it really bad - and we didn't even know him. It was just so sad and awful and horrifying.

Strawbs

How terrible, ive seen a old guy hit by a car in a busy street when i was on holiday and his legs got crushed between that car and a parked car all very distressing and you never forget it.

Hi Teenz,

Oh, that sounds horrible, too, witnessing that. And to see it actually happen must be awful.

I don't know, we didn't know the man, but it was terribly upsetting. Ertie was quite distraught, actually, and covered his eyes at first - it was obvious there was nothing you could do for the man, and I wonder how these police officers handle these kind of situations - just seeing what I saw made me go into shock - those police must have some kind of cut-off switch.

I've no idea how the man came to be lying in that stretch of road, there's not much there - just trees and fields - though there's houses much further up. It was strange.

As you say, it is horrifying, and it was a bit terrifying too. You could tell he was quite young, and I kept thinking 'that's someone's son' and wanted to do something, like hold him or something, but I was frozen with shock and felt scared (ashamed to say) - my heart was in my throat - but there was nothing could be done anyway.

It was horrible when we eventually got home, it suddenly started pouring with rain and we knew he'd still probably be laying there - the police,ambulance came but I don't think they'd have taken him away very quickly.

At least it was instant, that's one blessing I suppose. But his life is over....and his poor family................

Strawbs

God Strawbs what a shock!! feel a shiver just reading it,makes you think how one minute we can be here and the next we can be snatched away. terrible for his family they must be going thru hell now, do you know who he was or how it happened?

Maria x

I knew there was somethin wrong........sorry to hear what happened it must of been traumatic for everyone......I am the same as you I freeze up....nowt to be ashamed about its a normal human reaction some people go in to hysterics, everyone handles things in different ways....

bless the poor fellas soul......

What a rotten thing to happen and witness I hate anything like that

Nightmare

Pipxoxo

How terrible, I dunno what I would do if I saw that, hope it was that quick he never what happened. Sounds terrible. Was it on the telly?

Pol

What a horrible thing to come across. How weird that someone was in such a dark remote road.

Hope the visual images will fade from your minds quickly.

Hi,

Oh, I feel awful saying how bad it was for us, after all, we weren't the victims - it was the poor man who got killed. But his injuries were horrendous and we're trying to get the image out of our heads which keep flashing up every so often. It was such a shock to come across, and there was something so lonely about seeing him like that all alone, lying there, and knowing there was nothing in the world we could do for him. But at least he didn't know by then.

Pol, I'm not sure if it was on the local news - it may have been - but I haven't really had a chance to watch much TV. I don't really think it's something that would make the news - it has been in the local news on the BBC website, though. We did give our details to the police, but we never saw the actual accident take place, so there's not much else we can offer them. They are asking for more witnesses, though : http://www.surrey.police.uk/media/news_item.asp?area=3&itemID=14376

Mable, the road it happened in is a very long rural road, which changes in parts. Some parts are well-lit with houses dotted about, plus a few farms, horseriding school etc, but other parts just have thick trees, fields and winding narrowish roads which are very dark at night. It's a dangerous road, actually - I had a car go into the back of me down there once, and I've been told by people there's always accidents down there. There's a few blind spots, and although the speed limit varies between 30 and 40mph, cars ALWAYS do about 60mph. If you keep to the speed limit cars overtake you - it's that type of road if that makes sense. It's actually a very pretty road - there's a beautiful Lavendar Farm there - and I drive through it regularly to go shopping in Banstead as it connects Purley and Banstead - but although it's a 'main road' if you like, it's a very rural road, and is not really a busy road. Whenever we've driven through it at night you hardly see many cars at all, and I've never seen people walking along the part of it where we found the man. Oh, I don't know, maybe he was walking home from the pub or something - but it would be ever such a long walk - and some parts have no kerb and is not well-lit.

All very strange and upsetting.

Strawbs

Sounds like he might of been out drinking so never knew a thing about it, rest his soul

Pipxoxo

God Strawbs

Hope you are Ertie are feeling better, I am so sorry to hear about this awful incident, it is always shocking to witness such tragedies. Also its the poor victim's family who always have to attempt to carry on without their loved one.

Ruby xx

Poor man and poor you two. Glad the police didnt try and point the finger at you two!

From past experience and seeing something pretty gory (but not as gory as yours i have to say) it took a long time but the images do start to flash up less and less and eventually you can sort of numb yourself from them, but it takes quite while.

Mable,

Why on EARTH would the police try and point the finger at us?!!!!!! What are you implying? Are you saying the police are corrupt or something?

WE happened to come ACROSS the poor man laying in the road - and there was ALREADY a car parked a few yards ahead who had seen the man before we did! The man was hit by a Mercedes car, by the way.

I don't take kindly to 'veiled' implications - especially in a tragic case like this - and I don't like that remark you made. Not one bit.

As for flashbacks of upsetting images, I KNOW they lessen in time - from my own personal experience. You're wrong when you say one eventually becomes numb to them (some people may become numb or hardened to them - like you yourself have) but the psychology is much more complex than what you've described, and depending on the actual trauma; the person's psyche, sensitivity, previous experienes - a whole host of things - each case is different. But I'm not prepared to discuss psychology on this thread. This thread is about a man whose been killed.

Strawberry

Strawbs...some people on these sites have too much time to dwell on things and like to come up with mad ideas ...we know why dont we.... they need to get out more.....btw the first thing police do in accidents is breathalise and I know you said you and E wasnt...so thats put paid to that nasty little hint.......what car is it you drive Strawbs...I forgot......

What an awful thing to witness.

Hi Glitzy,

Yes, it was awful...

THD, of course we weren't breathalysed. We weren't involved in the accident - the man parked up ahead of us knew that. As it happens, going by the injuries the man sustained, the car that hit him would have been badly damaged too, and the police will inspect the car for damage, and try to determine how fast it was going. However, it does seem that the man was walking in the middle of the road, so I've no idea whose fault it was. He may have been on a suicide mission, or he may have been drunk. All I can tell you (and the police know this) even if you were going at 30/40mph it would have been difficult to avoid him had you just driven through the winding bend. But the accident investigators will establish what, why and how.

We were actually in the MX5, which as you know is very low down - so when we had to come to an abrupt stop we saw the full extent of his injuries in our headlights which were on full beam.

Whatever the reason for why the man got hit, it's still a tragedy, and his family must be going through hell.

Strawbs

Mable thats a very tasteless thing to say on a thread like this.

Pip

How awful, it makes me shudder just to think about it.

OMG Strawbs! How awful!! I would hate to see anything like that it makes me shiver to even think what it was like

Sal (((((

What a horrible thing to have seen Strawbs!

It could take a person days to get over even seeing the aftermath of something like that - let alone witnessing the actual incident happen.

I remember being on a bus when I was about 15 and a motorbike with a pillion passanger zoomed past the bus at speed on the brow of a hill, lost control of the bike, did a somersault and landed on the side of the road. The bus had to pull up sharply and as the bus driver had witnessed the accident we had to pull over until the Police and ambulance arrived. We could all see the bike driver and passanger and they were clearly badly injured. We found out later via local news that they both died from their injuries. We didn't see that much blood and gore but it was still horrible knowing that something really awful and serious had happened and they were in real trouble. Everyone on the bus was shaken by it. I can only imagine the horrendous flashbacks you and Ertie are experiencing Strawbs.

I daresay all the facts of this poor man's untimely demise will come out in due course.

Mable wrote:Poor man and poor you two. Glad the police didnt try and point the finger at you two!

From past experience and seeing something pretty gory (but not as gory as yours i have to say) it took a long time but the images do start to flash up less and less and eventually you can sort of numb yourself from them, but it takes quite while.

First of all Mable dark remote roads do not close after dark in the UK, we are not in a war zone, secondly, why the fxxk would the police point the finger at innocent witnesses, they have much more important jobs to do like investigating double murders and people who conceal the truth, thirdly, I believe you are a troll.

Ruby

Ruby I was thinking just the same as you, glad you said it

Pipxoxo

Guveclover wrote:What a horrible thing to have seen Strawbs!

It could take a person days to get over even seeing the aftermath of something like that - let alone witnessing the actual incident happen.

I remember being on a bus when I was about 15 and a motorbike with a pillion passanger zoomed past the bus at speed on the brow of a hill, lost control of the bike, did a somersault and landed on the side of the road. The bus had to pull up sharply and as the bus driver had witnessed the accident we had to pull over until the Police and ambulance arrived. We could all see the bike driver and passanger and they were clearly badly injured. We found out later via local news that they both died from their injuries. We didn't see that much blood and gore but it was still horrible knowing that something really awful and serious had happened and they were in real trouble. Everyone on the bus was shaken by it. I can only imagine the horrendous flashbacks you and Ertie are experiencing Strawbs.

I daresay all the facts of this poor man's untimely demise will come out in due course.

Hi Judith,

Yes, it was absolutely horrific. You're right, it does take a time to recover from the shock of seeing something so awful. It was dreadfully sad, and I'm ashamed to say it was scary, too.


Hopefully, the police and accident investigators will discover why and how it happened, and they do have witnesses who reported him walking in the middle of the road, so it's possible he was tipsy and didn't realise how dangerous that road is. Cars go very fast down there, and with parts of it being dark at night and winding, he wouldn't have stood a chance - and he was just at the end of where the road starts to bend. That is actually a black spot there, and is almost the exact same stretch where a car drove into the back of me - it's a kind of blind spot if you're not familiar with the road. Oh, anyway, it's no good me surmising - the police will piece it all together and discover what happened. It won't bring him back, though...it's such a tragic waste.


Your experience on the bus as a teenager must have been shocking, too. I think anything like that - particularly when you're young - can make you feel very panicky and you never forget such an awful incident. It is frightening and very, very sad.

Strawbs

ruby wrote:

Mable wrote:Poor man and poor you two. Glad the police didnt try and point the finger at you two!

From past experience and seeing something pretty gory (but not as gory as yours i have to say) it took a long time but the images do start to flash up less and less and eventually you can sort of numb yourself from them, but it takes quite while.

First of all Mable dark remote roads do not close after dark in the UK, we are not in a war zone, secondly, why the fxxk would the police point the finger at innocent witnesses, they have much more important jobs to do like investigating double murders and people who conceal the truth, thirdly, I believe you are a troll.

Ruby

Hi Ruby,

Maybe Mable lives in an inner city area and is unfamiliar with rural roads. I did explain in my original post that the road does have houses and farms etc dotted around, and Banstead Village itself is only a couple of miles (if that) at the top of the road.

I agree with you, Mable seems to get her wires crossed.

Strawbs

Strawbs think of it this way, all the people who stopped for him cared.

Maria x