If a phone rang at the scene of a fatal road crash, would you answer it...

cupthehand1 · 20-12-2014 9:47am #1

Just thinking while driving earlier this morning, hypothetically speaking of course and god forbid it never occurs but just say you are the first on the scene of a fatal car accident and while there, the victims phone rings and it says on the screen, Home, Mum, Dad or Wife etc. It's obviously a loved one and the person they're trying to contact is dead, oblivious to them - what would you do.....leave it ring out or answer it....

I have no idea what I would do in such a situation, I don't think I could answer it

Menas · 20-12-2014 9:48am

I would answer it, provided of course that I was not in the middle of trying to save somebody. Thats the theory at least, but in practice who the fck knows how I would react.

kneemos · 20-12-2014 9:50am

Why on earth would you answer it?
Sorry your daughter is dead byeeee.

Menas · 20-12-2014 9:53am

kneemos wrote: »

Why on earth would you answer it?
Sorry your daughter is dead byeeee.

If a loved one of mine had died or being seriously injured in an accident I would want to know about it as soon as it happened.

Big Bag of Chips · 20-12-2014 9:54am

I think you'd be better not answering it and letting the emergency services who arrive - after you've rang 999 - handle it.

... Unless you're qualified to pronounce someone dead, I wouldn't risk telling a family member.

Sauve · 20-12-2014 9:54am

No way josé. I would feel that its not my place to deliver that news. Try to do something else to help and leave that to the trained professionals.

UCDVet · 20-12-2014 9:56am

I'd do the only humane thing you could do....

Ignore the phone call. Then open up the webbrowser and delete, delete, delete! Best to just wipe that memory card too!

The last thing I'd want is for one of my loved ones to see what sort of nasty stuff I've been browsing while taking a dump! (Hint - it's porn. LOTS AND LOTS of porn. The kinky stuff too!)

Nobody should have their last memory of a loved one be the weird fetish they had. I'm going to start selling bracelets - like the ones that say '(DNR) DO NOT RESUSCITATE' that say '(DMH) DELETE MY HISTORY'.

Saipanne · 20-12-2014 9:57am

Probably illegal to do so.

kneemos · 20-12-2014 9:59am

Trigger Happy wrote: »

If a loved one of mine had died or being seriously injured in an accident I would want to know about it as soon as it happened.

The world has officially gone ga ga,time to run naked through the streets.

Big Bag of Chips · 20-12-2014 10:03am

... actually, I don't think the emergency services even tell people over the phone.

20-12-2014 10:03am

Saipanne wrote: »

Probably illegal to do so.

Illegal how?

By answering the phone or delivering the news?

seventeen sheep · 20-12-2014 10:05am

Nope. Wouldn't answer it. If the person was clearly dead, I'm not professionally trained to deliver the news.

They're not going to be any less dead in half an hour when the trained Gardaí arrive to the door. (God, that's NOT a job I envy.)

In a case where the person was badly injured (and if there was absolutely nothing else I could do at that point in time to help anyone involved) - I'd probably considering answering and telling the caller what had happened, and telling them to meet us at whatever hospital.

Then again, not knowing the people involved, how would I know that's a good idea? Send a traumatised person out onto the roads, for all I know they could end up speeding and driving dangerously to get there on time, and cause another accident? Probably best to leave it to the professionals to inform them and either give them a lift or escort them to the hospital.

So in theory, I think I'd consider it best not to answer the phone.

Saipanne · 20-12-2014 10:07am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Illegal how?

By answering the phone or delivering the news?

Disturbing the scene of accident?

Just a hunch.

Colser · 20-12-2014 10:17am

UCDVet wrote: »

I'd do the only humane thing you could do....

Ignore the phone call. Then open up the webbrowser and delete, delete, delete! Best to just wipe that memory card too!

The last thing I'd want is for one of my loved ones to see what sort of nasty stuff I've been browsing while taking a dump! (Hint - it's porn. LOTS AND LOTS of porn. The kinky stuff too!)

Nobody should have their last memory of a loved one be the weird fetish they had. I'm going to start selling bracelets - like the ones that say '(DNR) DO NOT RESUSCITATE' that say '(DMH) DELETE MY HISTORY'.

I know for a fact that if I could ever get my hands on my OHs phone he would need the emergency services asap..:D 45 mins in the loo is more than constipation and ye are not fooling us women at all:cool:

Donkey Oaty · 20-12-2014 10:23am

"Sorry, you've just missed them."

Banjo String · 20-12-2014 10:29am

UCDVet wrote: »

I'd do the only humane thing you could do....

Ignore the phone call. Then open up the webbrowser and delete, delete, delete! Best to just wipe that memory card too!

The last thing I'd want is for one of my loved ones to see what sort of nasty stuff I've been browsing while taking a dump! (Hint - it's porn. LOTS AND LOTS of porn. The kinky stuff too!)

Nobody should have their last memory of a loved one be the weird fetish they had. I'm going to start selling bracelets - like the ones that say '(DNR) DO NOT RESUSCITATE' that say '(DMH) DELETE MY HISTORY'.

Handier just to start browsing incognito / private mode?

Zen65 · 20-12-2014 10:42am

cupthehand1 wrote: »

I have no idea what I would do in such a situation, I don't think I could answer it

How about taking a selfie?

wendell borton · 20-12-2014 11:14am

Definitely do not answer it, let the guards handle contactacting next of kin. You don't want to be giving them half assed info that could cause undue distress.

somefeen · 20-12-2014 11:32am

No **** that, for all you know its someone elses phone that just happened to be in the car.

And anyway, delivering that kind of news is alot harder than, sorry to tell you this but X is dead. Say the wrong thing and your ****ed

EoghanIRL · 20-12-2014 11:42am

It's a big problem now that people put accidents online or tell people about the accident before medics arrive . It really isn't your place to tell the family . I would let the phone ring out .

Senna · 20-12-2014 11:44am

Is there a single person who would actually answer the phone? if there is, that person is a huge moron.

kneemos · 20-12-2014 12:04pm

Senna wrote: »

Is there a single person who would actually answer the phone? if there is, that person is a huge moron.

I blame facebook.Lessons are needed on how to mind your own
shaggin business.

Pat Mustard · 20-12-2014 12:14pm

A phone ringing is a bit of a red herring really, at the scene of an accident. I'd just use my own phone to ring emergency services.

Mesrine65 · 20-12-2014 12:27pm

No I would not answer it, I would leave it as is in order to preserve the accident scene until emergency services responded.

The Backwards Man · 20-12-2014 12:37pm

I'd leave it where it is. I'd also be in favour of lynching Facebook ghouls that release name of victims before families are notified, although in fairness I have noticed that they are pretty good at keeping that info private, around here anyway.

ireland.man · 20-12-2014 12:43pm

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/28/health/cell-phones-death/

Apparently phones ringing at accident sites take a mental toll on paramedics and firemen responders. Can't imagine listening to dozens of phones ringing at once from body bags at major tragedies..

UCDVet · 20-12-2014 2:12pm

Banjo String wrote: »

Handier just to start browsing incognito / private mode?

It'd help a bit I guess. Still, I don't care enough about trying to hide my tracks - I still set bookmarks to sites I like and I download the videos (I think I have 32gb of storage - not a lot, but enough). So even with incognito mode, there'd be plenty of evidence

I honestly don't know what they do with the belongings of the deceased. I wouldn't mind it if my wife were given my porn filled cell phone....but if my wife and I were killed in the same accident (entirely possible) I would NOT want my parents, or her parents, or our children (if we had children) getting the phone.

UCDVet · 20-12-2014 2:17pm

ireland.man wrote: »

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/28/health/cell-phones-death/

Apparently phones ringing at accident sites take a mental toll on paramedics and firemen responders. Can't imagine listening to dozens of phones ringing at once from body bags at major tragedies..

I'd never heard of this before, but it makes sense. Really interesting.

NoMore MrNiceGuy · 20-12-2014 2:20pm

There is no sense to answering the phone. You are not trained to give that information.

a person. · 20-12-2014 2:21pm

cupthehand1 wrote: »

Just thinking while driving earlier this morning, hypothetically speaking of course and god forbid it never occurs but just say you are the first on the scene of a fatal car accident and while there, the victims phone rings and it says on the screen, Home, Mum, Dad or Wife etc. It's obviously a loved one and the person they're trying to contact is dead, oblivious to them - what would you do.....leave it ring out or answer it....

I have no idea what I would do in such a situation, I don't think I could answer it

It's your job to get help for the victims as quickly as possible.
It’s not some randomers job or place to make erroneous medical pronouncements and inform the next of kin, that's the job of trained professionals and the emergency services.

seventeen sheep · 20-12-2014 3:00pm

a person. wrote: »

It's your job to get help for the victims as quickly as possible.
It’s not some randomers job or place to make erroneous medical pronouncements and inform the next of kin, that's the job of trained professionals and the emergency services.

I know that, if I was the person receiving the information ... I'd much rather receive it from the appropriate person who knew the facts and could advise me of the next step, than from ringing my loved one's phone and having some stranger babbling their interpretation of the situation down the phone. Even if it meant I had to wait a little bit longer to know that the person was dead (and how would that be a bad thing, anyways?)

Summer wind · 20-12-2014 7:28pm

I was going to the shop one day a couple of years ago and happened upon an accident. There was a man lying in the middle of the road and he was dead. He was thrown through the windscreen because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. There was a girl inside the car and she couldn't move and her arm was hanging by a thread. She had it amputated in hospital later. There was an injured man in the back too.
I put a blanket I had in my car on top of the dead man because I thought it was the right thing to do. More people came and we rang the police and ambulance. The people in the accident were Chinese and I remember standing there thinking their families must have been so far away and unaware of this accident. There's no way I would have answered a phone if it had rang. I think that should be left to the police.

Canis Lupus · 20-12-2014 8:51pm

Yeah, yeah, ok now. ok. yah, bye, bye, yah, ok now, yah, alright bye now, bye bye bye bye.

suicide_circus · 20-12-2014 8:58pm

Answering the phone would almost certainly put in motion a chain of unlikely events which would culminate in a lank haired little girl crawling backwards out of my tv screen and feasting on my pancreas.

Tin Foil Hat · 20-12-2014 9:02pm

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I would answer it, provided of course that I was not in the middle of trying to save somebody. Thats the theory at least, but in practice who the fck knows how I would react.

Absolutely not. There are people trained to break news like this. Lesson One is to not do it over the phone.

Fukuyama · 20-12-2014 9:03pm

I read a book years ago by a homocide detective in the US. He mentioned that when he arrives on a crime scene it's very common for the victims phone to start buzzing in their pockets. One call every half hour turns into frantic calls every few minutes. But they can't answer because it'd disturb the scene and they need to let the tecs do their thing.

So everyone just has to continue working the crime scene while there's someone the other end of a phone trying to find their loved on.

I'm sure it's a common enough occurrence at car crashes when someone was supposed to be home from work at a certain time or was only going the shops for ten minutes but has been gone over an hour etc...