I watched what seems to have been someone who was drunk (or tweaking on something!) narrowly avoid hitting my girlfriend and I on 460 as they cut between our vehicle, and another vehicle, only to cut in between that vehicle and the one in front of us in our lane. They went back from the far left lane all the way back over into the lane that merges onto Williamson Road to go towards the Civic Center, and then went left instead of straight/right to go with the flow of traffic. For those of you who are familiar with the area I'm talking about, you might predict what happened next... Next, they drove over the concrete island at what I would say was easily 45-50mph. Up until they had swerved left really fast to go over the concrete island, they were probably doing 60+ mph, but that's just my best guess. Anyway, they hit the concrete island HARD and blew at least one tire instantly, either on impact, or as they landed back down on the ground. Yes, they went airborn, but that didn't phase them. They merged back onto 460 headed towards Vinton/Bedford not by using the merging lane, but by turning right from the lanes that take you straight past Sheetz.

After seeing all of this happen in what seemed to be slow motion, I thought it would be a good idea to call it in. I talked to a dispatcher who took down all of the information including make/model, license plate #, location, etc. This was another instance of police being in the immediate area and nothing being done. Even if they weren't drunk, or on something, they could have easily killed someone. Why are things like this not taken seriously? Was there a more urgent need to hunt down the kid who had a loud exhaust or chirped their tires in their 90hp import? I followed the best I could to try and make sure something was done about it, but I have to draw the line when it comes to actually having to step up and put a stop to it myself. If the police won't do anything about it, I can't imagine they would be all too forgiving if something happened where an ordinary citizen put an end to the recklessness. You know?

There have been numerous times in the past few years where I've called in things like this in hopes of not hearing on the news the next day about how someone was killed in a car accident. I wouldn't dare pick up the phone 'just because' if I didn't feel like there was an honest need to have the person stopped. I called not too long ago when there was a car going the wrong way down the interstate with nothing but parking lights coming straight at me. It must have been 1-2AM, and they would have hit me head on if I hadn't moved out of THEIR way! Does that seem worthy of calling? I thought so. Apparently they didn't, since there was a state trooper within a block of the exit ramp I got off at. I had just got off of the phone with a dispatcher, and I heard her talking on his radio. He went the other way. Nice, right?

There was also the Mustang who got on the entrance ramp and swerved into the concerete barrier in the middle of the highway.. Hit so hard that the ass end of the car was pointed nearly straight up in the air, and narrowly avoided me. Once all four hit the ground, they swerved back to the other side of the highway, then straightened it up and kept going. I called that one in, and there was literally a trooper sitting ON the exit ramp waiting for the light to turn green at Elm. The car had got on at Orange, and hit the barrier right when it got on. I pulled up next to him and advised I thought he might want to see what's up; He said he would, and proceeded to go the opposite direction.

Do you ever wonder about what leads up to these terrible accidents you read about happening all the time? What if you saw something leading up to it (like the instances I mentioned), and you did everything you could to try and get someone to deal with it before it ended up being a tragedy, but they didn't bother... I would feel terrible if I knew one of these incidents ended up with someone innocent dead, and of course I'd be disappointed that it wasn't taken seriously before it was too late. They let all these drunk drivers go with a warning. One of the guys downtown did a burnout through the intersection, totally wasted (even yelling out the window how intoxicated he was), and he was given a seatbelt ticket. The officer acknowledged that he was drunk, and that he cut him a break. What if he didn't need a break because he gets drunk and drives recklessly multiple times a week? What if he needed to go through what I went through? I had an issue with slowing down, and it took something pretty serious to slow me down. It took a set of handcuffs. I regret that it happened, but I appreciate the experience because I've learned from it and made an important change. Drunk drivers who keep getting warnings are going to eventually kill someone, and the officer who cut them some slack is ultimately going to be the one I think is to blame. It may have just taken one simple ticket to change that persons life for the better. Maybe it would take more than that, but something needs to be done.

Sorry for the rant.

 

damn this is almost spo! i really do think that cops/troopers call bs on anything unless it gets more than one call/ they see with there own eyes

 

x2 next time cliffnotes are wonderful ... Good Post spo ?

 

Sorry, guys. I know it's long. I got carried away. I've lost people I cared about to drunk drivers, so I guess that has something to do with why it bothers me so much. The new laws/fines bother the hell out of me too, because they act like they're really cracking down on drunk driving now. The penalty may be stiffer, but it doesn't matter if they're not charging people with it. They would give me a ticket with similar points and fines for not using my turn signal, and they would write that ticket up in a heart beat... but if I were drunk, they would probably find something small to cite me for and let me go ignoring the fact that I was intoxicated.