How You Panic

[livingdeb]

Yesterday evening, three of us went on a walk. Not long into the walk, we witnessed a car crash.

I'm not sure who's at fault from a legal or insurance perspective. I suppose it was the driver who, without signalling, turned left in front of incoming traffic, then saw the car coming and put on her brakes so that she came to a halt while still in the other person's lane. She could have prevented the accident by watching for and then waiting for oncoming traffic, and she could still have avoided it by applying the accelerator more strongly once she noticed the approaching car.

On the other hand, I feel sure that the other driver could have avoided the collision by using her brakes, and Robin feels she could have avoided the collision by swerving to the left a little; there was no car coming the other way in the lane to her left.

We walked over to the accident in case anyone was hurt or the police needed witnesses. No one needed our help. We did learn than if you are in a collision that releases your airbag into your face, and then you can't feel the bottom half of your face, but your friends assure you that it still looks like a regular face (not smashed or bleeding or anything), then you're probably okay. It really stings because you'll have abrasions, and there will be baking soda from the airbag embedded into your abrasions, so once you rinse off your face with plain water, you should feel much better.

So this leads me to the topic of panic. The first driver panicked by slamming on her brakes. This did not work for her. The second driver panicked by freezing. This did not work for her.

I once decided that there are three ways that people typically react in an emergency. One is to take in the situation and take action, making things better. One is to overreact, generally making things worse. And the third is to do nothing.

I am the third kind. Here is why I think that.

1) In driver's ed, we had a simulation section where we got into pretend cars in front of a movie screen and pretended we were steering properly, signalling, braking, etc., along with the film. On the last day was the unit with emergencies, but they didn't warn us. They just said get in your car, as usual. Then the truck in front of us came to a sudden unexpected stop. If I had really been driving, I would have just sat there, slamming into the back of the truck. Not good.

2) Also when I was a teenager, there was a small fire in my brother's bedroom. My response was to wander around the house looking for blankets that we wouldn't mind ruining by throwing them over the fire. Then I saw my dad bringing a pot of water from the kitchen. Duh! Water puts out fires. We made several trips from the kitchen before remembering that right across the hall was a bathroom from which we could get water much more quickly.

3) Again as a kid, once when I was camping and it was raining really hard, I really had no idea what we should be doing. Finally we all ended up taking our tents down and getting driven to a church while much of the area was getting flooded. We heard a rumor that a baseball game at the Astrodome got cancelled because of flooding that next day.

While I wish I was a can-do person during emergencies, I'm just not. At least I am suggestible, so as long as someone knows what they're doing, I can be helpful.

Do you know how you respond in emergencies, and if so, how do you know this?

Comments

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! It sounds like you have good and helpful responses, even if later you can think of better ones.