( Video )Motorcyclist who vanished into a sinkhole on Monday, found deceased after an 18-hour search. The man was seen riding his motorcycle on a road in Seoul, South Korea when a 65 feet wide and 65 feet deep sinkhole opened up.
The motorcyclist was identified by officials as a man in his 30s. First responders reportedly had to pump out water and dig through the dirt for 18 hours to find him. It’s unclear at the moment what caused the sinkhole.
On another site I saw more of that video that showed the pavement continuing to collapse into the hole and a water main gushing into it also. That poor guy didn’t stand a chance.
I also read that there is a new underground railway excavation in process in the area.
I’m still haunted by the sink hole in FL that swallowed up a man while he was sleeping in his bed in a suburban Tampa house. I had to scrub FL from consideration as a retirement location.
To me, sink holes are really spooky, kinda like when liberals are in charge.
Just another example of how no one is guarenteed the next five minutes.
That guy got up, got dressed, said see ya later to his loved ones, and went out riding to wherever, with plans for later that day, that week, that month, and that year.
All of which were swallowed into the ground along with him.
He did nothing wrong, he could not have forseen this; one minute EZ Rider, the next smashing into a surprisingly watery grave.
God pulls your number on HIS time, not yours. Sometimes He gives you some hints, and sometimes the ground just opens beneath your feet.
…some of you long-timers are probably familiar with my usual story about surprise death. One that really stuck with me was a very healthy 20 sonething that I met as a medic when he died suddenly while running down court at a midnight basketball game in the ’90s. We worked him, the hospital worked him, turned out it was all pointless as he blew out an aortic aneurism and was irretrevably dead before he face planted and slid so hard he rubbed the tip of his nose off.
This part Ive told before.
But weirdly, I just met him again through a friend of his, 30 years later, metaphorically speaking of course.
I only knew him as John Doe, his nonbreather status making further introductions impractical. But now I know his name.
I started working with a new guy, and one day someone else we were expecting didnt show up. Typical of my mordant sense of humor, I said maybe he died coming in. The new guy wasnt used to my graveyard whistling and questioned this, so I told him about a different guy who actually DID die coming to work there and only his frantic passenger kept it from being a multicar catastrophe. We just kinda shrugged and he saud yeah, I know guys who died young. This of course was my springboard to relate that story above. Unlike most people, he just started looking at me funny and said “Yeah, I has a buddy who died like that, playing basketball in that area, but that was 30 years ago so it couldnt be him”.
I hadnt told him THAT part.
So we started comparing places and it got weirder. I got a name from him and researched it, first finding his grave, then a newspaper article.
IT WAS THE SAME GUY. The place, the time, my old squad, everthing I remembered was in that article. The face was faniliar too, but since the last time I saw it was with various tubes shoved in ,in and dried sputum in the closed eyes and, of course the nose so it wasnt an exact match to my memory but still pretty jarring.
Back in the day, I deliberately avoided tracking my patients. I didnt want to know their lives, their outcomes, nothing but the immediately pertinent facts, and once they were at the hospital they were no longer my concern. This was pre-HIPAA so the hospital WOULD have told me, but I never asked. I didnt WANT to know them, that just makes it more tragic if things go South.
But now I know his name, exactly how old he was, that his father is still alive, his basketball awards, the fact my son went to the same school 20 years later, and of course at least ONE of his friends.
And I kinda wish I DIDNT.
It just makes life and death seem that much more arbitrary, and a pile more tragic indeed.
…so the only take away here is be payed up and prayed up and ready to go any day and every day. Treat your loved ones like today may be your last.
Becase you know what?
It just might be.
The ground may just swallow you up later today.
…ya never know…
I read a story a few years back about a man sitting in his home next to a plate glass window, when he was hit and killed by lightning on a clear day. Sometimes your number is up and there’s not a damned thing to be done.
…while we’re here. lets talk about violence on the English language…
“First responders reportedly had to pump out water and dig through the dirt for 18 hours to find him.”
…this didnt used to be a “thing”, but in the 2020’s its become VERY common for lazy reporters to refer to everyone who shows up at any time in any official capacity as a “First Responder”. Its annoying enough that it doesnt differentiate between police, fire, EMS, or the guy from the gas company that needs to turn the main off, but also its just linguistically wrong.
The person who shows up first is the “First Responder”. While this may be a policeman or a fireman or a person (usually a duty officer) specifically designated as such, the guy that gets to the scene first is “That Guy”. Everone else follows him in, so technically they are no longer “First”.
I can GUARENTEE you the “First-In” was NOT the guy who had to “pump out water and dig through the dirt for 18 hours”, that would have been some lucky Truck company or ten. While its noble and good and ABSOLUTELY necessary work, the Second Alarm (or third, or fourth, or fifth) guy who spells off the last guy with a shovel 8 hours into the burn is NOT, definitially, “First”. Hes doing the Lord’s work all right but there’s another tired and grimy individual hes replacing that was there BEFORE him, so whatever ELSE he was, he was NOT the first to respond.
Nor were the OTHER 90 guys.
…I dont remember the incident but it was some natural catastrophe, and the article said at its peak that 1500 First Responders were on the scene.
And so Im left to believe that they are either hella efficient or they “Formed Up” like a WWII bomber squadron before anyone else headed out so they all got there “First” at the same time.
See how absurd that is?
Its just lazy reporting, is what Im saying, like when they say firefighters are wearing “oxygen” tanks on their backs, but its gotten annoyingly common in later days.
…so now, Im going to wreck my own peeve and say, unlike the Highlander, there CAN be more than one “First Responder”.
As I type this, I am wearing a Company issued shirt with a nice, embroidered Star of Life on it and the legend “FIRST RESPONDER” in block letters encircling the Rod of Asclepius. This is to demostrate to others in the factory that I have had some basic training and demostrated some basic proficiency and so WILL try to ensure they die somewhere other than work, should an issue arise. I and others like me are a stopgap as calling 911 does not cause a fully trained crew to materialize instantly, and having been on the other sude of a 911 call I can tell you with certainty that the battle for life is often won or lost in the 4 + minutes before the first LEO hits the scene, let alone the ambulace. I am a true “First Responder” even with only rudimentary (recent) training as I can be literally the “First” to “Respond” with equipment and knowledge for the specific purpose of dealing with the emergency at hand.
But I am not the first MUNICIPAL representative, as in person sworn to the service of city, state, nation, and God. The first guy who shows up in a CITY (or county, or state) uniform is the “First” to “Respond” from officialdom, and so he, too, can be a “First Responder”.
But even using thad divided definition, no one who shows up AFTER him is. HE, and he ALONE, was “First”.
There are not dozens of First Responders at any one scene, and First Responders do not show up hours or days later to an already active scene crawling with their mates.
C’mon reporters, do better.
Stop it.
*Rant Off*
@SNS — A truly righteous rant!
…thanks, UA, from you thats high praise indeed.
One other thing about “First Responders”, then I’ll let it go.
Another reason I am confidant that the “First Responder” dud no draining or digging is that it would be inappropriate and possibly deadly for him to do so. Any first-in’s PRIMARY duty is scene size-up. What is the incident? What are the hazards? Where is the victim? How MANY victims are there? Is it safe to approach? Where is BEST to SAFELY vector inbound units to? What exactly is coming in and what do I want them to do? Do I need a second alarm? Is the road blocked? Do I need LEO for traffic and crowd control? Do I need utilities like gas and electric and steam cut? Do I want an air ambulance on standby or to respond immediately? Wheres the LZ if so, and who sets it up?
All this, and more, is what the literal “First Responder” should do BEFORE attempting to treat even the first obvious patient. To do otherwise may make HIM and inbound units victims as WELL, in addition to leaving some victims untreated or even unfound.
And if its a Mass Casualty as this certainly COULD have been, treating patients at ALL is NOT the First Responder’s duty, TRIAGE is. The first-in is Incident Command until an officer relieves him, and its HIS job to assess locations, numbers, and severity of victims and to direct incoming resouces according to that principle, “Do the most good for the greatest number”. This may seem cold but it is CRUCIAL to honoring that idea for him to put aside that caring instinct and COMMAND. When you have a patient you are treating its VERY absorbing, and you get tunnel vision to everything ELSE…NOT something you want if youre IC. You may lose SEVERAL saving that ONE if you do so as units pile up randomly, get in each other’s way, and run out to patients and possibly into trouble helter-skelter without someone coordinating the large, and possibly growing, scene.
Take this one, for example. We saw the BIKER go in, so thats ONE. But did you see how HARD that car that was on the outside edge got thrown? Sure, that guys probably not dead, not right now, but his spine may be broke, his head busted, a hematoma forming, and how many OTHER people are in that car,in the same state or WORSE? And thats just what we SEE, were there secondary accidents as paniced peoplw swerve to avoid it? Are there looky-lous going the other direction rear-ending each other as they gawk? Is there a MAJOR gas leak? Are there underground high voltage conduits ruptured? Have they shocked people not necessarily next to the hole? YOU dont know, and neither does the first guy rolling up on the scene.
He HAS to secure it. NOW. 360 size up, then delegating and coordinating is the order of the day here.
…so no, he did NOT “pump water” or “dig out” the one victim we KNOW about immediately, and it would have been ABSOLUTELY stupid and irresponsible to do so.
…but to read “First responders reportedly had to pump out water and dig through the dirt for 18 hours to find him.”, you would be under the impression thats exactly what he did.
I will now let it go.
Thank you for your patience!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YVVTZgwYwVo
AbigailAdams, Florida is full….