On the rural roads around my home it is an unhappy fact that I often see dead animals on the road, sometimes quite large ones, in various stages of dismemberment. So as I was driving to work this morning I was not especially surprised to see the first sad signs of a life ended in the left hand lane of the motorway as it passes under the bridge at Gretna. It was early morning and still dark and I was listening to my Open University course on the car stereo as, horrifyingly, my headlights caught larger and larger body parts and an enormous amount of blood spread across the carriageway. I muttered to myself “blimey, that was a big one.”
And then I saw clothing. I felt pins and needles run from the top of my head down my body. I also thought I saw the body of a child lying face down in the hard shoulder but, in the dark and the brief, unreal moment, I could not be certain. I hope I am wrong; we see the shapes of human beings everywhere.
I reported it to the police who, to my relief, confirmed they were not aware of any incident, but would investigate. Then I waited nervously. The first indication that what I had seen was real was the large number of blue flashing lights heading in that direction, then reports that the motorway was closed following a “serious incident”. Then, with a news report of a male suicide, came certainty. Jumping from a motorway bridge into the path of traffic is a hard, cold and lonely death. I feel very, very sorry for everyone connected with this and have enormous admiration for the police who must look squarely at every aspect of an incident I only glimpsed.
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Oh Roger, how awful, that poor man! I hope you are o.k. now.
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Thank you Cathy. I think it will stay with my a while, but I'm ok. I feel desperately sad for the man concerned and his family.
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"I feel very, very sorry for everyone connected with this and have enormous admiration for the police who must look squarely at every aspect of an incident I only glimpsed."
Don't worry. They have training and colleagues to talk to.
A friend of mine is a mature PC - one night they were sent out to search for and pick up the bits of someone who threw themselves in front of a train.
At one point one of the coppers called out "Hey, watch this" and proceeded to march down the platform swinging his newly discovered trophy singing at the top of his voice "I'm Jake the Peg, diddle-iddle-iddle um. With my extra leg, diddle iddle iddle um." The mood lifted and they could get on with the rest of the job without being upset.
Gallows humour works wonders.
But I feel sorry for the poor sod / sods who hit him - assuming they know what they hit. Myself and a tanker driver both had to brake and swerve to dodge a man who ran out in front of us, one after the other, on the A6 many years ago. HGV air-brakes are amazingly effective, much the apparent annoyance of the man who tried to get under it.
Anyway, such jumpers often destroy the careers of train drivers when they are used as the means of someone's demise. When I went through my 'black dog' years, my thoughts of suicide were always racked with guilt about the impact it would have on others; I don't understand the need to trash someone else's life in the process.
Don't lose sleep. The man's problems are gone forever. We all have to go sometime and he may have had good reason to not hang about waiting.
Well done you for reporting it.
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Thanks Simon. Good, solid, hard-edged stuff and some interesting comments. Sorry to hear you have also been through some hard times. I hope that is safely in your past now. If nothing else this incident made me look up statistics for incidences of suicide in the uk - I was shocked. It's so common. No wonder this incident got barely a mention in the local press, beyond a line or two about the motorway being closed.
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Going back to your first sentence, my wife's grandfather always said "When you see a lot of dead animals on the roads, it's a good sign, it means their population is strong".
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Simon - Your remarks are crass, offensive and inappropriate and how dare you infer that a police professional would show such lack of professionalism, sympathy and sensibility as to parade a body part for fun. You are quoting hearsay/gossip - you did not witness this appalling act of insensitivty and should not therefore impart it to others as an example of police behaviour.
I assure you - although it's probably a waste of time - that all road traffic incidents are handled with the utmost professionalism and sympathy by Greater Manchester Police officers and other forces.
Your comment about dead nimals is beyond belief.
Roger - I understand how traumatised you must have been by this incident. Your local police force can offer you victim support if you want to talk it throiugh.
JoAnn
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"Simon - Your remarks are crass, offensive and inappropriate and how dare you infer that a police professional would show such lack of professionalism, sympathy and sensibility as to parade a body part for fun. You are quoting hearsay/gossip - you did not witness this appalling act of insensitivty and should not therefore impart it to others as an example of police behaviour."
I was quoting a close friend I have known for 35 years. Yes, it was exceptional.
Don't believe it then. But it was what he said to his grandchildren to make them feel better about seeing dead animals at the side of the road, and it worked.
Anyway, this probably isn't the best place for a row.good
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