The other night I pulled up to an injury collision and saw two crashed cars still in the intersection. One of the cars had front end damage and was leaking a slippery fluid all over the street. The other car had damage to its passenger side.

The fire truck was already there and blocking traffic, making it safe for us to walk around in the intersection.

Both drivers were at the corner and a passenger was still sitting in the car being treated by fire personnel.

I interviewed one driver and a witness while fire was talking to the other driver. After I was done speaking to the first two guys, I was ready to talk to the other driver, but the paramedics were still talking to him.

It seemed to be taking a long time for the guy to decide what he wanted to do. I overheard the captain ask, “Do you want to go to the hospital?”

“I don’t know. My parents are almost here,” replied the man, who was in his mid-twenties.

The captain was trying his best to be patient at this point. I could tell they wanted to leave because this guy couldn’t make up his mind. I was standing there when the captain asked, “OK. What bothers you the most?”

With a hurt look on his face, the driver said, “The fact that I was in an accident.”

This made all of the fire fighters roll their eyes at me. Some of them even laughed when they heard that. I won’t lie, I did too. Luckily for all of us his mom showed up with a cup of “mamma’s boy” for her son to drink up.

That’s when I said to myself, “This guy didn’t need the paramedics. He needed a hug.”