accident #2

(an actual accident)

last thursday, it was almost the end of the day when i heard a big commotion coming from what sounded like the room below me (which happens to belong to one of my good friends). i started listening carefully then heard an ENORMOUS crashing sound, sounded like metal ... which it was.

i sprinted downstairs to his room and saw his whole class near the window. i heard him on the phone calling 911 and asking for an ambulance ...

a student had left school early (left out, as we say) and was standing on a big metal grate outside my friend's class. he was jumping up and down (trying to reach the window, we think) and the grate, which was made up of a bunch of smaller grates about 2' by 7', gave in beneath him and he fell into the 20' deep concrete well.

i don't think i've ever personally witnessed anything quite so traumatizing. from my classroom window, we could see him down there, bloody and trapped under about 3 or 4 of these huge, heavy things. after about 40 minutes they got him out and in an ambulance. about 2,000 people (student population of our school, the high school, and alllll the neighbors) were crowded in the streets. the emergency vehicles were all over the place, so there were probably more than 10 trolleys lined up in either direction, waiting. helicopters overhead ... an intense situation.

miraculously, he's okay - staples in the head, punctured lungs, and cracked ribs, but nothing that won't get better. whew. scary times.