That First Fatal

(WARNING: Some reading the following may become ill. Graphic accident description to follow)
We all go through it. Photojournalists usually remember their first fatality. For me, it was definitely something I'll not forget. I'd been on the job for less than two weeks. A rookie by anyone's definition, but soon to be dubbed grizzled veteran just because of one person's stupidity. Even ten years later, I've never seen a worse accident scene.

I'd been in TV for over a year, working on the production side at WBKO in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Going from teleprompter, studio camera all the way up to director in less than a year, I thought I was prepared for anything. I BS'd my way in to the news department when they needed a photog. "Oh, yea, I've had experience using an ENG camera in school." In reality, I had just started taking my broadcasting courses, never even picked up an ENG camera.

The phone call came as I was getting ready for work. The voice on the other end saying, "there's a bad wreck on I-65 at Cumberland Parkway. We need you to go out and help Julie Pursley (our Barren County one-person-band) so she can get back to the newsroom for the noon show. Just how bad the wreck was, I had no idea.

Upon arrival I noticed more than a few State Police cars, fire trucks and ambulances. The accident had occurred on the ramp from Cumberland Parkway to I-65 southbound. A long curve of a ramp that shouldn't be taken more than about 45 mph. This fool tried to take it at about a hundred! Troopers told me later that the Pontiac Sunbird convertible had struck the guardrail where it begins the upslope and flew in the air some 100 feet before striking a light pole. The pole sent the car, now upside down, back on to the guardrail, decapitating the two passengers and sending the driver out the roof and almost splitting him in half. EMT's said they didn't even know if he was male or female when they arrived on the scene; somehow, he survived.

After I shot what I thought was enough video of the mangled mess of a car and cutaways of the bystanders and emergency workers, I waited at the bottom of the ramp for one of the troopers to give me some sound. After a short while in the summer sun my wish was granted as one of the troopers strolled down the ramp in my direction. I tried my best at some small talk but all he said was, "you're new ain't ya son?" "Uh, been here 'bout two weeks, sir" was all I could muster. "Well, I need ya to do me a favor if you think you can handle it." Eager to please on my first encounter with Trooper Big Gun, I quickly said, "sure, whatever you need."

What he asked me next I wasn't prepared for. "I need you to put a new tape in that machine and shoot some video for us." No problem, they probably just want some scene footage for their files. "You're gonna see some pretty nasty stuff, can you handle that?" Now, I grew up with a father who was a cop for 25 years; Moose used to tell us stories of the things he would see. People shot, car wrecks, bodies that had been in a house for weeks. You name it, he told us about it. So, "sure, I can handle whatever you got," now feeling quite macho in the setting.

As I go under the yellow police tape past the onlookers I'm really feeling my oats now. Until Trooper Gun tells me to watch where I'm about to step, "that's brains." OK, a little perspective here. We're still a good 200 feet from where the car made contact with the light pole and guard rail yet the car is at rest with a LOOOOONNNNGGG trail of blood coming from it. Little did I know that a little brain matter and skull fragments were nothing compared to what I was to see later.

I was asked to tape everything. The amount of blood, the brain matter, skull, the car, now upside down with no roof. And then, they did it. They lifted the sheet off the guy in the bushes. He'd been ripped from the car upon impact and thrown into the brush about 50 feet away. He had no face, just an open, empty skull. Parts of his body had been ripped off or open and I just kept telling myself to "look through the viewfinder, look through the viewfinder." Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, one of them yelled out, "ya gotta come look at this." There, laying in the grass was what looked like a rubber mask. Just a face. Completely peeled off. Now, I'm not real sure what went through my mind at that particular time, but looking back it now I can't believe I didn't ralph. I think it was just so surreal that it really didn't sink in. I do remember looking at it because I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. And to top it off, we thought it belonged to the guy under the bushes but it actually belonged to the girl still in the car some 200 feet away!

I also remember getting the call from the State Police office telling us the driver had been charged about a week later and telling us we could come over to the post and get video of them walking him to a patrol car to be taken to jail. It was the saddest walk I've ever shot. He was using a walker because of his injuries sustained in the crash so it took about 5 minutes for him to walk the short distance to the trooper's car. He was prosecuted for his foolish, drunken act. Although somehow I think killing his two friends is probably more punishment than the time behind bars.