Not having a life, I was skulking about in the SSP Forums about 8:30 a.m. when I heard a loud "BANG" outside and went to investigate.

 

A car was stuck in the grass in the park across the street, with the backup lights flashing on and off as the driver tried to extricate it. Skid marks led to it, starting on the curve just before the big dent in the guardrail.

 

A van pulled over and the van driver went over and tried to talk to the car driver. She (tall, thin, long brown hair, late twenties, no jacket in freezing temp) bailed out and took off running up the street toward my place, with the van driver on the cell phone and trying unsuccessfully to keep up. After she went by, I followed her at a discreet distance.

 

She was unsteady on her feet, alternating walking and running. I thought she might be headed for a nearby house, but after an irregular path up a couple alleys and through back yards, it was apparent that she was just trying to get far away.

 

I got the 911 dispatcher on my cell phone and kept her updated on where the woman was, and after about five or six blocks a patrol car went flying by, flipped on the lights and hit the siren. The cop had cuffs on her in about thirty seconds and had her in the back of the car.

 

I went home and got my camera and then went to the park to get a couple of poor-to-mediocre photos.

 

The cop said she blew about four times the legal limit. She had actually been trying to drive away in this!

 

 

 

Thanks for that update RNN (Rob News Network).  You might have a second career as an ambulance chaser.  :wink:

 

Damn that pontiac is messed up!  Drivers like her, is why I rarely drive.  I can control my car, but have no control over anyone else vehicle and I am always affraid that someone else will run into me.    I so prefer to take the train.

Assorted Pontiac themelines over the years, via wiki:

 

"Fuel for the Soul" 2003-2004

"Pontiac: Action" Early 2005

"Pontiac: Designed for Action" 2005

"We are driving excitement"

"We build excitement"

"You Got It, Pontiac"  1968

 

 

 

Way to help out Rob.  I hate people who drink and drive!

I see a lot of excitement where I live; I'm just on the upstream side of a curve in a major one-way arterial where it heads out of downtown. After the stoplight about two blocks back, there's not another one for about a mile and a half. Despite the 35mph speed limit, increasing to 40mph just after the curve, most drivers are going close to 45 when they pass my house, and accelerating hard. There used to be a big tree just off the curve and no guard rail until about 20 years ago, and about once a month, usually just after closing time on Friday or Saturday night, somebody tried to push the tree out of the way. The tree always won.

 

Local drivers consider fast, aggressive driving a basic right. FWPD doesn't even have a traffic enforcement division. I've seen cars in the park, a car literally wrapped around a tree with the wheels a foot above the ground, a car flipped, a semi loaded with building debris on its side in the middle of the street, and even a semi in the river.

Those hoodpins are tight!  :roll:

Witnessing these kinds of accidents is incredibly strange.  My sophomore year of college, my friend and I witnessed a drunk driving incident where two people were racing  on a major boulevarded street outside my residence hall.  It was 1:30 a.m on a freezing snowy Februray night so the roads were really slippery.  They were rounding the bend on this street (1 car on the correct side of the median, the other on the wrong side), when the first car lost control, hit median curb, flipping his car upside down into the other car.  It sent that car out of control, where he hit a light standard and then slammed into the concrete pier of a pedestrian bridge.  The force shook the bridge, knocking one of the globe street lamps off the post, missing what would be the third witness of the incident.  It was the craziest chain reaction accident I've ever seen in my life.  (probably the only one I'll ever see).  Both drivers survived with only a few scratches, but their vehicles were totaled.  When we ran to the guy that crashed into the bridge, all he wanted to do was leave, but we couldn't get him out of the car, because the door was stuck.  We weren't trying to help him get away, but we could smell gas, and figured we should help him get out of the car.  The guy in the car that rolled over was just wandering in circles in the middle of the street.

 

I had to testify in court later that summer.  I never got to hear what charges were brought against them though.  However, the police did mail images of the scene to me prior to the court case.  I'll see if I can dig them up and scan them.