1 Block From the Station, 10 Minutes From EOW

I was working day shift, 8am - 6pm.  I was headed into the station, end of the day.

A call came out about an accident that had occurred about a block from the station, pretty much directly in my path of travel.  I piped up that I would respond, let the swing shift guys go on about their robberies and drug interdictions.

I pulled up to the crash.  It was on a new overpass that had been installed to accommodate new traffic expected to come into the area as some huge new medical facilities were being built. 

There is a very small police department that works in that giant medical complex.  At least one of their officers beat me to the scene.

Accidents are not a big deal to an officer with any time on.  Most of the time, the cars look HORRIBLE and the people are fine.  So, I was pretty nonchalant about my approach.

There were a few people standing around and as I walk into the intersection, a female officer from another agency looks at me and just walks away from the crash, not a word.  She had a strange look on her face, but I didn't know her and she was not my priority.

Other officers arrived as I walked around the SUV.  They were dealing with someone trapped somewhere on the passenger side of the vehicle.  There was lots of commotion over there.

On the crushed driver's side, I could see airbags had deployed and there was an arm sticking straight out of the window.  There was no movement.

There is something about death.  You just know it when you see it.  Even an arm sticking out of a window can tell you all you need to know.

I was bobbing my head around the driver's side front exterior, trying to see if I could see or do anything to determine the status of the driver, despite already knowing in the back of my mind that nothing could be done.

Well, another fatal.  We will have to wait for fire to bring that metal cutting jaws-of-life to extract this deceased person from the SUV.  The door is crushed in and so is the steering wheel.  I am not a Transformer.  I can't bend metal like that.

So, I am sad about this but decide to just peek around a bit more and make sure there is nothing I can do.  Maybe I can do something from the back seat.

I peer inside the rear window and see the doll on the seat and start to turn my gaze to the the back of the driver's seat.

But .... that is not a doll.  That is a sweet baby toddler girl of Hispanic descent and the top of her head is ... I don't know exactly, maybe sheared?  It's there but there is a big hole and I can tell that part of her brain went with whatever else was missing.

Oh my God.

Now I understand the look on that other officer's face.  She could have warned me.  I mean, she was in shock.  I get it.

This beautiful little girl, seat belted, dead, in the back seat.

I will never forget that image, that shock, that sorrow.

I warned the others working the scene to prepare to see the girl and I had Rescue check on her, just to confirm what I already knew.

She was gone.

That night, I didn't have to go on to the next call.  I got to go home and try to wrap my mind around what to do with that memory, that sadness.

But others, they had to go on to the next call.