I was driving east on Storrow when I saw this overturned car in the westbound lanes. A Massachusetts state trooper was rendering aid to the victim, who was laying inside and underneath the rolled vehicle. I parked under the Longfellow bridge and put on a lime green highway vest. News photographers on the highway, in essence, become highway workers so we are told to wear these vests. I crossed Storrow and came to a position at the median strip fence approximately 25 feet from the action. More troopers were arriving and one came over to me and asked what I was doing, etc. I told him that I was a photographer with the Herald and that I would “keep my distance” and not get too close and that I wasn’t going to move forward from my perch standing on the jersey barrier. I noticed the original trooper trying to calm the victim and, at the same time, ascertain what his injuries were. One man who had also stopped to render aid did not approve of my presence and stood in my view between the victim and my camera lens. I had to employ the old bob-and- weave method, all the while hoping that there would be some interaction, maybe a touch, between the two. I kept bobbing and the other by-stander kept weaving, and then it happened. State trooper Kevin Nichols reached out and lightly stroked the man’s leg while saying “hang in there.” It was a nice, subtle moment. I was glad to have captured it. Shortly afterward the Boston fire department took over and extricated the man. All in a day’s work for these officials.
Tags: accident, auto, Boston, car, Herald, MA, Mark Garfinkel, Massachusetts, overturned, state, Storrow Drive, Trooper
