It's not Speed, it's Not Stopping

Friday afternoon, 4 pm, I-5 south at Oceanside Blvd. I'm driving a
Tacoma in #4 after a long day of driving around OC, trying to get back
to my office.

I decided to stay in #4 because the asshat in front of me wasn't
holding the wheel of his light blue 80's Accord and wasn't paying ****
for attention. I don't know if he was masturbating, rolling a joint,
shooting up, or just sending text messages, but his hands were
obviously in his lap in front of him and only on the wheel after he'd
left his lane. He was slothcellerating along until he had to slam on
his brakes because traffic had stopped in front of him. For obvious
reasons, I didn't want him next to or behind me. In retrospect, it
was a great decision.

So traffic gets moving near an offramp as it always does from exiting
cars leaving, creating a gap Californians floor it to close before the
onramp, thus causing abrupt braking. Well, for most people. Blue
Accord didn't feel a need to brake this time, and gave me the perfect
view of a three car accident, after Maroon Ranger got pushed forward
into grey Eurocar.

I saw no brake lights on BBle Accord until the same time I heard the
crunching noises and saw the Ranger slide forward. The Honda wasn't
going more than 35-40 mph, but a 20 year old Accord hitting a car
that's 1000 pounds heavier and stopped still will twist some metal.

At this point it was time to get out the cell phone, call the cops,
turn on the hazard lights, and make sure people were okay. First I
asked the driver of the (now leaking water and lacking headlights)
Accord if he's okay. He looks blankly and asks, "Como?" I try "Esta
lastimado?" which gets me a "si" when I noticed there were two kids in
the first car.

I figured screw this ****up, I hope he has neck injuries and started
asking if the kids and their mother were okay, when Mr ****up Blue
Accord jumped back in his car and drove off, nearly ramming a van and
a compact trying to avoid me trying to kick in his passsenger side
window.

Right at that moment the 911 operator came on (I was on hold while all
that was going on) so I yelled the plate at them a few times, and got
some CHiPs heading over. One officer commented it was the first time
in years a witness stopped and helped, which seemed a sad commentary
on SoCal these days.

As the good news, both occupants of the Ranger, and the three
occupants of the European car in front were uninjured, and Mr ****up
Blue Accord is now a wanted man, as is the registered owner of the car
he was driving. (Oceanside + hit-n-run = an illegal with an illegal
car.) The now pretty well ****ed car that's going to attract police
attention without the plates being wanted.

The part that bothered me is that an officer who was present when I
gave a statement referred to this as a speed related crash. It was
not at all speed related. It was a dumbass related crash, compounded
by the dumbass being an illegal immigrant.

Chalk up another one to the "bad statistics" pile.

Dave

PS - No, I didn't take any pictures. My camera wasn't immediately
available before the guy ran, and afterwards it would have been tacky
and rather pointless since we moved the vehicles out of the roadway
after making sure everyone was okay.
---
http://www.davidphogan.com/sdroads
Amature Ass(phalt) and more!