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04/28/2005 Archived Entry: "Another day in paradise"

Nothing can get you out of the morning haze quite like hearing the vehicle you have parked in the driveway, get crunched at 7:30 in the morning.

Trying to catch the morning news I hear a distinct crunching sound that is usually only made when two vehicles impact each other. The problem is one of those vehicles was mine. Parked in my driveway. I am still wearing my PJs as I head out my front dpor. A neighbor lady who was watching her kids as they wait for the schoolbus was there saying that a car just hit my van. And low and behold there are pieces of car headlights on the ground behind the rear bumper of my van.

The neighbor had identified the car and had a partial license plate. She had also seen where the car was headed. I went got my cell phone and drove over to where the car headed. It was the driveway of a house not even half a block away.

I don't know everyone who lives in neighborhood. However I had one previous incident with this house with a different memberof the household and the situation was one where that person had possibly been a witness to a crime. I had found out later they were actually a bit more involved than just being a witness.

This member of the houshold however was there in the driveway walking toward the street when I pulled up. I asked what happened. She seemed a bit mystified by question. "What do you mean?" I responded well you left part of your car in my driveway when you hit my van.

"Oh that wasn't me, that was my friend and she just pulled in and took off running."

The BS detectors have now gone off at full alert inside my head. But I will play along.
Well who is your friend and why is she driving like this? She nearly hit the kids who wait at the corner of my property for the school bus. There are about three moms out there who are furious because they had to pull their kids back because you friend almost turned them into roadkill.

"Oh I didn't know she was like that. I just came out after I heard her car pull into my drive way."

The neighbors are really upset, the damage to my van is minimal. But your friend is making it worse by running away.
Now this is a company van. The damage on my van is really only cosmetic to the bumper. However the BS alarms are going off in my head like and Emergency Broadcast System test. I say "Well, since this is a company van and your friend has taken off I am going to have to file a police report.
Here is my out for her. All she has to do is say I am sorry I wasn't paying attention, I will fix the damages on your vehicle and I will aplogize to the parents. People driving under the influence won't do that. They will make excuses. I wouldn't even have accepted the offer to repair the van because the damage is so minor. She responds,

"Well my friends family have been trying to do something about her situation for a while."

Where did your friend run off to?

"No idea."

You realize if I file a police report they are going to come here and do an investigation on this vehicle and arrest your friend for leaving the scene of an accident?

"Let me see what happened to your van?"

The damage is minimal, but since your friend bolted and this is a company van I am going to have to file a police report. This would have probably been simple if your friend hadn't run off.

"Well I can try to look for her."

You do that I am going to put on some real clothes and wait for the police.

Now my wife is talking with the neighbor lady. I ask Janel to get the information from the neighbor lady and call the police while I get changed. I come out after changing my clothes and I am trying to get all my information avaliable for the police when thay arrive. I found that my registration is missing. It is in the van but is buried under some paperwork in the van but I can't locate it quickly. Fortunatly I have a copy in the house and I will get it. Just as I am about to the husband of the neighbor lady who was waiting with the kids for the bus this morning arrives. He looks like a swat officer with a K9. He is not a law enforcement officer but part of a private high end security force. He is going to wait and watch until the police arrive. About this time the neighbor lady is telling me that she needs to run to the general store and get some motrin for kid because it is running a fever. The EBS signal in my head is screaming again.

Ma'am in order for you to do that you would have to take that car which has been involved in an accident and leave. I am not inclined to approve that.

"But my kid is sick."

I am sorry but I have police on the way and that car is evidence in an accident.

I walk away and go into my house and find my copy of the registration. When I come back out she has left. But the husband with the private security K9 is following her and now calling the police dispatchers. He is watching her drive into onto coming traffic because she is on the wrong side of the road. She stops and gets gas at a 7-11 (she didn't buy any motrin). She then is driving again and the dispatcher is asking the guy about the car because it doesn't match the license plate number he is giving. She then hits someone else. No damage to either vehicle so the other driver lets her go. The husband is still following her but almost loses her when she goes through a school zone at 50mph and he decides to slow down to 25mph and not hit the kids that are crossing the street. He does catch back up to her. About this time a police officer shows up at my house to take down the information get the witness report from the neighbor lady when the neighbor lady who has her husband on the phone is asked by the officer to ride with him to where the women who hit my van is. She is now about .5 a mile from the neighborhood because she was driving back. The woman than stops in the middle of the road at that point and is not driving any further. She just stopped in the middle of the road. Traffic is now backing up.

The neighborlady is riding with the police officer. They get to where the woman is and my wife and I wait for a bit because I don't want to just leave in case the police office comes back.

Well after a very short wait my wife goes and checks on where they are and the situation. She comes back and tells me they are going to be there for a while. I head over to where the office and everyone else is at, still in the middle of the road. My wife and I pull off into a side street and help get traffic moving again. The officer has called for backup and begun administer a roadside sobriety test. Now I am not an expert, but she didn't seem to do real well. The oficer handcuffed her. Other officers arrive and all of us are filling out reports and now one of the junior officers is taking care of traffic. The officer needs to get her to base to preform a blood alchool level and the longer they wait the lower the results will be. So other officers are helping with the paperwork and calling tow trucks to pick up her car. And one officer is removing the plate because it doesn't belong to that car. You might remember earlier the dispatcher acting confused when the K9 security husband was giving that information to dispatch saying that didn't seem right. While this roadside circus is going on. One of the drunk lady's friends shows up to try to find out what is going on. Then the ex-husband comes across the scene he is pissed at her because she is driving drunk and hitting things. Also the ex-husband has the kids with him. She didn't have any kids with her to need to get motrin to take care of a fever.

Still to come the orginal offficer has to come back after processing her and make some sketches for his report. Possibly take pieces of her car and a few pictures from my driveway and in the meantime. I lose the day.

And where was my community police officer the one assigned to our area. The one who is on 2 way page with my wife. Not to be found. No answer, nada. This event started at around 7:30 am it was 30 minuets befoire the orginal office showed up. She drove around for 15 minuets hitting another car while someone was on the phone with the dispatch office.

And I will spend the day working with the officers to gather the facts and evidence. I don't really mind doing that. I do mind the slow response to the situation which was being fed in real time to the dispatch office. I don't blame the officers who came out for the report. I do blame dispatch for being lazy. I do wonder where the hell was my community officer.

But most of I mind some lady drunk at 7:30 am for causing all this crap nearly hitting the kids waiting for the bus. Lying to me when asked about it. And forcing me to involve the police in the first place.

Here is a link to the police blotter on the woman who hit my van. Also she came back with a blood alcohol level of 0.0. So while she wasn't drunk. She was driving under the influence of something else. The results of the urine test will take a couple of days.
http://www.pbso.org/index.cfm?/36236E2D250215130035161D520F070B37523F371E40392C392E20013D0E0B33001818001A0231073F021E4037272013795E50525C7F5C2B46595E52625B51534315691D3561231D0641112F101916541702214901041C4A6D70637F7C5D53575C7F53C7/index.htm

Posted by Understudy @ 04/29/2005 08:01 AM EST