Hey all, I had an idea for characters becoming injured or possibly dying in a car accident, which is a rather common and well-documented type of casualty. Now, I don't know how to drive and I don't have any direct experience of car accidents, and I want some sort of realism and accuracy in describing the event in detail. Is there any way to research other people's experiences and documented examples of car accidents without being morbid or insensitive? I'm also quite a visual learner, but I don't want to expose myself to gore or invade someone's most vulnerable moments by looking at photos taken without people's consent. Any ideas?
Any basic research will do. Traffic deaths are sadly ubiquitous. I know at least a dozen people who have been killed in car wrecks and probably over a hundred more at one degree of separation.
The BBC reconstructed numerous car accidents for their 999 series (1992-2003). It was done sensitively and informatively, with as little blood as possible - and much of it's on Youtube. They usually didn't cover fatal accidents or life-changing injuries. For that or the impact on survivors I'd probably trust to Google and Youtube and exercise some discretion.
I'm assuming the accident would be written from an external POV (point of view)—not from the POV of someone in the car? Unless maybe a survivor? I suppose I should ask rather than suppose. Are you looking for descriptions of what it feels like to be in a car involved in an accident, or to see one from nearby, or maybe just to see the aftermath, the wreckage etc? I've been involved in a couple of accidents that were more than just fender-benders, and could give some description (though neither accident was life-threatening and nobody got injured, aside from cutting my thumb on some broken glass in one of them). In one my little Corrolla got picked up and spun around in the air before landing on a grassy hillside next to the road, and in the other I was sitting in the passenger seat of my friend's car when somebody plowed into the passenger-side door and i was thrown into my friend's lap. As I say, I could give more details if you like. These were both in pre-airbag days, I've never experienced an airbag opening in my face.
I would say both the first-hand experience and how it would look from an outsiders point of view (like if a car drove into something, would the metal crush, would people be ejected, etc). Would love to hear any experience if that's okay!!
Ok, here goes. There comes a moment when you know you're about to get hit, or about to hit something, and there's nothing you can do about it. Maybe somebody in the car shouts, maybe it's you. There might be cursing, screaming, and the loud honking of a horn. In both of my experiences I dropped into a sort of out-of-body experience, or to put it another way I dropped into the present moment completely, into a state where there's no worry or fear or anything of the sort, you're just simply there and waiting to see what the results of the crash are going to be. You suspect it's going to be very bad and that in a few moments you're going to be hurting, but in this moment everything is suspended. Then there's the screeching of tires, the crash comes, and all in one moment there's breaking glass, the sound of crunching metal, a big impact on the car that suddenly shoves it in a different direction, maybe now multiple people are making noises (if there are multiple people in the car). In one of my experiences I was lifted out of the seat by the impact as I said and thrown sideways where I landed on my friend's lap. In the other one the whole car was knocked up and spun in the air (it remained upright, it spun side-wards). Then it's over, you gradually emerge from the present-moment state and begin to notice any pain. That takes a little while sometimes. It's like you're waiting to see what's going to hurt and only slowly does it start to happen. But like I said, there were no injuries in either accident, except a little blood because I had cut my thumb on some broken window glass. Shattered glass was all over in the car. Depending on conditions, other cars might also slam into the already-wrecked cars, if they're too close to stop in time, or if they have enough room they'll probably stop or drive on past very slowly if they can get by. That's all I can think of to describe.
If you witness a nearby accident, first you'll probably hear screeching tires and/or a horn blaring, or someone shouting, but sometimes there's no sound until the crash itself. Often you have to turn and look to find where it is, or maybe somebody near you sees it before you do (maybe it's behind you or something) and they say "Oh my god!" or something, and so you look where they're looking. Or if you're standing near the road somebody might run and grab you to pull or shove you out of the way (or you might shove somebody else out of the way). By now everyone in the immediate area is looking at it and just waiting to see if everyone is OK. These days of course people will have their phones out recording, if your'e lucky one might actually call 911 instead. And maybe a couple of people are concerned enough to run and check on the people involved. Sometimes nobody does though. People have a habit of just going on about their business or standing and watching, and wait for the police or rescue to show up and deal with it.
I've had a couple of minor fender benders in parking lots. Not much to say about them, as I said, they were minor. I did have an accident on I5 in San Diego, but it was not life threatening. It was, however, a total surprise. Police had 2 of the 4 northbound lanes blocked off for accidents, so I slowed down. Idiot behind me was rubber-necking at the other accidents and ran into me from behind.
