I was driving on I-635 and I saw what appeared to be a really large bloodstain on the pavement - it looked like it was at least 5 feet long. I’m not certain it was blood, but it looked like it, and I have seen large bloodstains on pavement before.
When someone gets splattered on the highway, doesn’t the highway cleanup crew or someone get called out to clean up the blood not long after the body is removed?
Nope.
It’s a well known and proven fact that all highway patrol vehicles carry 2 gallons of Coca-Cola in the trunk for exactly this purpose.
Smile when you say that, Gaspode. 
Awww, you mean it isn’t true?
Seriously though, in this part of the world it’s down to the fire brigade to wash all that sort of stuff of the highway. They just use the high pressure hoses.
In some place maybe they simply let it decay till it’s gone, consumed by the bacteria that hide everywhere and/or let rain work on washing it away. Especially if there was no death involved.
Are there any Cop dopers we know of?
I see lots of large stains on the freeway, but then I usually see the cause too - a deer carcass on the shoulder. The freeways are fenced, but the deer often find their way across anyway. I’ve never seen anyone washing these stains off, and I think it goes away after a few thousand cars pass over the spot (heat & friction?). I would hope in the case of an auto accident they would clean it, but I am used to seeing the deer stains.
I’m a firefighter/paramedic. Whenever we respond to accidents with large bloodstains on the road, the fire dept. attempts to wash as much as possible away with water…Sometimes the more thoughtful ones will use a stiff bristled broom to scrub the pavement. Some of the more wealthy fire deptartments have a chemical that is supposed to absorb blood, but it is expensive, and does not work all that well. Whatever is not washed off is left until it naturally fades away, which can take a lot longer than you would think. I worked on accident in june of 2001, and the pavement is still discolored.
~I know it wasn’t right- But it felt so good… -Better Than Ezra
There was a serious single-motocycle accident near my place a few months back, and while the fuel & oil stains from the bike are essentially gone, the blood stain is still quite visible. Poor SOB was badly messed up, and left a stain about 3’ x 4’. It gives me the willies every morning on my way to work. I asked about it back then, but got little in the way of response. This thread has answered the question.
I wonder how effective using hydrogen peroxide would be? Years back, my mother had an attack and called 911. The emergency workers arrived and took some blood, and some got on our couch. One of the workers suggested we put some peroxide on it, and sure enough, it bubbled away and the blood was gone.
I’m think h. peroxide is pretty cheap, I wonder if it would be a good thing for them to dump a bunch on the road to get rid of the blood?
Actually, hydrogen peroxide will work…It is what we use on the floor of the ambulance to clean up blood… But it is not very practical for a large blood stain. If you had a 5’x5’ blood stain on the road, you would probably need a few gallons of the stuff. Plus I am sure the greenie weenies would have something to say about it.(It bleached the Spotted Owl!)
~Seems like it’s always understood this time of year… -Better Than Ezra
So I am at my Fire Dept., and this topic has become of great interest. A couple of us are wondering if there is such a thing as powdered/granuled hydrogen peroxide. If so,(And it didn’t cause to much of a fuss with the EPA) a small bucket of powdered peroxide could easily be transported, spread over the stain, then sprinkled with water from the truck, eliminating the need for a drum of the liquid version.
~God save the king of New Orleans… -Better Than Ezra
In industry, OSHA requires a controlled ritual for spilled blood. If somebody gets a cut or a nosebleed, the area is isolated with biohazard “do not enter” tape, and a housekeeping guy is called in. He:
assumes the blood is contaminated,
puts on a Tyvek suit with face shield, booties, and gloves,
douses the spill with bleach (straight or 10:1),
cleans up the bleach with paper towels or a mop,
puts all cleanup material and his protective gear in a med waste red bag,
and leaves the scene, taking the red bag to its proper place.
It’s interesting that ambulance crews and fire crews treat blood on the street more casually. Would you want to be downwind when Hepatitis infected blood is sprayed off the street? How about if your kid or dog walked through a blood puddle and tracked it into your home?
Re Fire Departments washing down blood:
If my sometimes rapidly fading memory serves me correctly, the Newington, Connecticut Fire Department was fined a large sum by the state for washing down blood after a multiple shooting in the state lottery office a few years back. Simply washing blood into the catch basin is a big no-no (think of any other hazardous materials release…blood is just another hazmat)
Do a search on Sodium perborate. From here:
You may also want to look into sodium peroxide and **trisodium phosphate **.
Thanks rsa…I am going to look into that.
AskNott - I live in a rural area…I am telling you how we deal with it. I am sure if it were a densely populated area, there would be strict protocols for blood & waste cleanup Read:“Some of the more wealthy fire departments have a chemical…”.
I don’t think you understand the amount of blood we are talking about here. Obviously if it were a situation where a person lost a few pints on the street, it would be handled much differently. But contrary to popular belief (And Hollywood) when a person is in a wreck, they generally do not bleed that much. When I was in school for my Paramedic certification, one of the things the instructor demonstrated was how inaccurate it is to gauge the amount of blood someone lost by looking at a puddle on the floor. Try this at home: take an 8oz cup, fill it halfway, then spill it on your concrete sidewalk. It looks massive, when it really isn’t. If you figure that probably 50-100 gallons of water are poured on a blood stain, not much is left to be a biohazard. When you get in the ocean, or a lake, you are exposed to (and I am not sure of the math here folks) a LOT more biohazardous material than you would ever be exposed to from 8 oz of blood on a highway.
I’m guessing that 3’x 4’ spill (on asphalt) would be what, about a pint? Maybe two? Assuming that some of the blood was soaked up by his clothing, the guy that wiped out near my place must’ve been bleeding pretty good. Although I think his worst injuries were internal, IIRC, he had some seriously broken limbs. Would a compound fracture bleed like that, or would it require a good-sized head wound?
A pint would be about right tranquilis. It depends on the surface.
To answer your question of what kind of wound he may have had…Tough to say. A Doctor might tell you the medical reasons of blood on the pavement…For instance, when you go into shock, your heart beats faster to compensate for blood loss, pumping out more through the wound…I am really surprised that more Doc’s haven’t chimed in on this. I can tell you from the field however, that the wound really has nothing to do with it. I have seen a shotgun blast to the head, that had about 6 ounces on the floor. I have also seen nicks to the legs and arms from glass that would not stop bleeding. It has a lot to do with the physiology of the patient.
BTW, I am not sure why this thread intrigues me so much…Perhaps because it hits so close to home. If anyone gets annoyed with me, let me know, and I will shut up.
~It’s the way you move your hands…And It’s the way you understand… -Better Than Ezra
The road there is failry porous, which is why I thought it might go as high as two.
Well, I was thinking that it wasn’t roadrash… That shouldn’t bleed too heavily. A nice arterial laceration might do it, if it were a big enough artery. A nasty gash to the head oughta do it, but while this guy had head injuries, he was wearing his brain-bucket, so maybe not. Do compound fractures open up arteries very often? I’d imagine his internal injuries wouldn’t have wound up bleeding all over the ground…
I realize I am chiming in a little late, and this has already been mostly covered. But I can tell you that my father’s company (he sells janitorial supplies) makes a line of products that use peroxide instead of bleach. It’s marketed for hospitals and it safer and not as corrosive as the traditional bleach-based cleansers.
I don’t know if you want further information on this, but if you do, feel free to email me.
I know that in some places there are people who specialize in cleaning up crime scenes indoors - they will come in after a murder or other crime and clean up the blood and whatever else needs to be cleaned up. The police will tell you about these people if you need them. I think they might charge by the hour. I guess cleaning up a road is harder so these people probably don’t deal with that.