Many years ago, before everyone had a cell phone, we were returning back home to Nova Scotia from vacation in New England. We were near Sussex New Brunswick at the time in a torrential rainstorm. As we rounded a loooong curve we met a car flashing it’s headlights and through the rain we could see one car sideways in the road hanging over the ditch and another on the opposite side of the road on it’s roof. The first car was a large station wagon with the rear axle assembly ripped out from under it and the driver's side punched. One car had hydroplaned and crossed the highway hitting the other and an 18-wheeler following one of them plowed thru the wreckage. The truck driver was trying to get help on the CB but skip was too noisy. Several cars had left to find the nearest phone. We stopped. My wife just retired a year ago from 34 years as a registered nurse, so we were legally obligated to stop anyway. I placed a call via my newly purchased 2m HT via the local repeater and summoned fire/rescue, police and medical. It was a REALLY bad wreck. The single occupant of the station wagon was clearly in shock. He had a compound fracture of the left elbow, signs of a fractured left hip or pelvis, a huge black/purple mass indicative of a ruptured spleen and was bleeding from the ears. At that point, he was the lucky one. The other vehicle that was upside-down had the roof crushed down and all we could tell was that there appeared to be three occupants, all of whom were deceased or would soon be as we could not gain access to them. I relayed info to the base operator that was online with 911 and when medical arrived it included a nurse and trauma surgeon as well as paramedics because of the urgency of the situation. That was MANY years ago yet it still seems like yesterday.
On another note, when my boys were quite young,,,,,,they are 24 and 25 now....I was in the shack listening to the Hurricane Watch net during a hurricane. I told them about hams helping out during disasters and within a couple minutes we heard a call from the Cayman Island requesting someone contact Cayman Islands Rescue authorities. He was in his attic with wife and kids with six feet of water in the house. he was on a Yaesu FT-857 compact all band radio with a car battery and a wire for an antenna. Someone in Georgia took the call and contacted Miami Coast Guard who in turn contacted their counterpart in the Cayman Islands.
That is about all I have to offer.
On edit:: Just remembered shortly after getting our first CB. I took a call from someone on the highway that I could see from home. I saw a flashing amber light....it was on the roof of his Jeep. A car with two women and two kids plowed into the rear of a stopped 18-wheeler. It was wet and raining with a bit of freezing rain at the time. She never touched the brakes. The trailer bumper was sitting between the front and rear seats. The kids were OK. that's all.
