The stories of people that survived jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge might provide insight. They seem to remember the jumps pretty clearly.
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger]
Somebody in a car wreck doesn’t think to themselves during the wreck, “I sure am glad I’m wearing my seatbelt!”
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Yes, they do. I have. Why would a car be different from a motorcycle in the face of an oncoming collision?
[QUOTE=toadspittle]
Did you have concussions? Because you may not have lost consciousness–just your memory. I flipped over the handlebars of my dirtbike when I was a kid, and walked halfway home, talking to my friends the whole time (bloody and with a mouthful of dirt), before I “came to.” I don’t remember anything between the takeoff and walking home. But I WAS conscious during that time.
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I had considered that too (the amnesia), but neither of us were concussed. We were both wearing our seatbelts and the BF had some bruising, and I was fine except for some stiffness for the next couple days.
Something I have always wondered, did they jump or where they pushed out? There was not a lot of window space on the towers in comparison to the number of people of each floor. Add to that the intense heat, I wonder if there was a rush to the windows with people being pushed out.
You know, stories of people who are amnesiac after a traumatic event are a bit worthless for this discussion. To forget you went through an experience presupposes that your existence continued AFTER the experience. So whether or not people can remember the events up to and during, for instance, a car crash has no bearing on what those poor folks went through. If they had lived, perhaps they would have had no memory of the jump. But as horrible as it is to contemplate, they were more than likely acutely aware of the jump as it happened. Then it ended.
[QUOTE=Cluricaun]
A rather ghoulish point, but the jumpers didn’t do swan dives either. They went feet first which would at least to me point out that somewhere in the reptile brain they actually expected to survive jumping. That survival instinct is a hard one to shake. They were most likely awake the whole way down.
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Well a swan dive is pretty hard to do, and videos of people comitting suicide of the GG Bridge show that many jump feet first as well.
No one wants to tackle the part in the OP about remains on the ground?
Rudi’s story about seeing one woman fall breaks my heart but also shows that she was fully consious all the way down.
He described seeing the woman fall and while she was falling she kept trying to keep her skirt from blowing up. Falling to your death and still trying to keep your dignity. That image of humanity is almost too much to bare IMO. It just brings it home to me in a way that the actual images for some reason don’t.
[QUOTE=EJsGirl]
Yes, they do. I have. Why would a car be different from a motorcycle in the face of an oncoming collision?
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*During *the wreck? Most people are still trying to control their car or trying to protect their face. Heck, a lot of times, during the tenth of a second of the accident, people aren’t even aware of what’s happening. I can all but guarantee that you didn’t think about your seatbelt until the actual crash was already over. It’s not any different than a motorcycle, I didn’t think about any of my gear until after I was already standing up.
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger]
I understand what you’re trying to say, but I don’t think it’s relevant. I lowsided my motorcycle last night, and the last thing that was going through my head while it was happening was that I sure was glad I was wearing my helmet. As soon as I stopped sliding, though, I sure was glad I had my gloves on; they were basically shredded, and I still got a little rash on my palm. Somebody in a car wreck doesn’t think to themselves during the wreck, “I sure am glad I’m wearing my seatbelt!” Sure, they may think so a few seconds afterwards, but it’s not going to make the immediate mental reaction any different. It simply happens too fast.
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Sure, but my point is this: in the absence of safety devices, does the mindless panicky rush end after a couple of seconds, or at all?
Might not make a difference in the relatively short time it takes to fall from a building to the ground, but going back to our skydiver (let’s say he’s a comparative newbie, just to keep things level) - there is - for him - a moment when the rush subsides and he’s skydiving - the “OMG! I just jumped out of a frigging plane and I’m falling!” turns into “Hey, this is pretty damn cool”. What we don’t know is whether that transition happens so quickly, or at all, for people who are falling to their deaths.
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger]
*During *the wreck? Most people are still trying to control their car or trying to protect their face. Heck, a lot of times, during the tenth of a second of the accident, people aren’t even aware of what’s happening. I can all but guarantee that you didn’t think about your seatbelt until the actual crash was already over. It’s not any different than a motorcycle, I didn’t think about any of my gear until after I was already standing up.
[/QUOTE]
I was in an accident a few years back. I spent maybe two seconds maneuvering my car trying to avoid the other car before the impact. Full on ABS, pull left, then cut back right where I misjudged and hit his front bumper with the side of my car. Literally if I had 6 inches more, there would have been no contact. :smack:
Anyway the point of impact was my headlight. I heard the glass break, and thought “So now I get to find out what an airbag deployment sounds/feels like” That just an instant later, as the bumper tore down the side of my car, I recall thinking “Guess not, it didn’t hit hard enough”
So yes you can and often do think of things in the middle of an accident.
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
No one wants to tackle the part in the OP about remains on the ground?
[/QUOTE]
I’m curious about this, too. Ashamedly so, but still curious.
[QUOTE=brownsfan]
I’m curious about this, too. Ashamedly so, but still curious.
[/QUOTE]
I’m afraid that a Google image search for WTC jumper remains will tell you all that you need to know. It goes without saying that the results are NSFW.
I remember seeing clips of a skyscraper (maybe a hotel) fire in South America, during which there were many jumpers, with several going feet first and somersaulting ever so slowly slowly - in full layout position.
It was such a terrible sight to behold, that I couldn’t watch the 9/11 jumpers.
And talk about not dying from a heart attack from high falls…
What about that guy in New York City who was on a high rise roof working away, when the scaffolding (I think) broke and took him over the side. He fell about 47 stories onto the roof of a neighboring building, but didn’t die immediately; he lasted a day or so in the hospital, as I recall.
And no, I don’t want to talk about the remains left on the ground.
[QUOTE=Chris Moise]
Also, would there be any recognizable remains on the ground? I’m hoping the answer is no..
[/QUOTE]
The people who jumped were wearing clothes, so even if their bodies were crushed beyond recognition as human remains by the impact you would still have seen their clothes surrounded by what used to be their bodies. I think that would be at least as disturbing as seeing the bodies in a more intact state.
[QUOTE=Pushkin]
Google didn’t turn anything up, but I was sure that there was a chaplain or higher ranking officer in the fire department hit by a falling body and killed.
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Seems that his name was Daniel Suhr from Engine 216.
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger]
*During *the wreck? Most people are still trying to control their car or trying to protect their face. Heck, a lot of times, during the tenth of a second of the accident, people aren’t even aware of what’s happening. I can all but guarantee that you didn’t think about your seatbelt until the actual crash was already over.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, I did- my experience was similar to Rick’s. I even had time to think about higher insurance rates and my pregnancy before we hit. Ours was an idiot turning left at a signal without checking for oncoming traffic. Due to some brilliant driving by my husband, we avoided killing the people in that car, avoided a light pole, then came to rest in a Jeep Cherokee.
ETA- I was thinking the whole time, including at the moment of impact. A similar thing happened in another accident- I was driving and saw a gal coming towards a red light perpendicular to me, and it was “Oh no she is not running that light, she isn’t, oh you fucking bitch BRAKE AND TURN!”
[QUOTE=Gus Gusterson]
…even if their bodies were crushed beyond recognition as human remains by the impact…
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They wouldn’t be. It varies depending on several factors, but the terminal velocity of a typical person in street clothes is about 120 MPH. That’s about as fast as a falling body can impact the pavement. They’d definitely be recognizably human, if not immediately personally identifiable.
[QUOTE=EJsGirl]
I even had time to think about higher insurance rates and my pregnancy before we hit.
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No offense, but probably not. The mind is a funny thing, and it has a way of filling in the blanks after the fact. You simply can’t trust the accuracy of your memory of sudden, disorienting events like auto accidents no matter how clear the memory seems afterward.
[QUOTE=KRM]
I’m afraid that a Google image search for WTC jumper remains will tell you all that you need to know. It goes without saying that the results are NSFW.
[/QUOTE]
Holy shit. If want something even worse google “WTC jumper” go to images then look at the one from cannabisculture. Right now it is in the second row on the far right.
Even if a jumper were conscious the whole time, and landed feet-first, I would think that death would have occurred so abruptly that they wouldn’t have lived long enough to have even felt the impact. Their final moment would have consisted of “Here it comes…”