Driving

I see these all the time but I know how your civilians love to see car accidents. Here's a few interesting ones from the past few weeks:

This woman was driving to an adult care facility for her first day of work. She pulled into the parking lot and instead of applying the brake, she stomped on the gas pedal. Her car jumped the curbed and slammed into her new employer's building. One look at her large orthpedic brick shoe with four inch sole was explanation enough for me.


This woman lost control of her car duing rush hour and ended up perched atop a pile of dirt. Her car was not damaged but the tires were in the air so she could not move off the dirt pile.

A male driver was doing about 60 mph down the street when he suddenly swerved off the road, across the sidewalk and into a block wall. He hit a large light pole so hard that it snapped at the base and was launched up into a tree. The base of the pole is up in the tree while the top (where the light is) was touching the street. The driver was fine but his female passenger had a nasty compound fracture at the ankle and will probably lose her foot. Just another reminder to not get into a vehicle with a person who just finished off 5 boubons. The airbag and seatbelt surely saved her life but not her foot.

Speaking of driving: my city has an ordinance that requires vehicles being driven by unlicensed drivers be impounded for 30 days. It doesn't matter who owns the car -if you borrow a friend's or relative's car and drive it without a license, it will be impounded. After fees for towing, storage, and administration, a person with a valid driver license, insurance, and registration can retrieve the vehicle between the 30th and 45th day (after that, the tow company applies for salvage title and will auction the car).

The other night I pulled over a car with three people in it for making an incorrect turn. The driver had no license or insurance so I issued him a citation and called for a tow truck to come impound the vehicle. The occupants walked home. As soon as the vehicle was towed away, I went back into service and quickly pulled over another car for poor driving. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was the same three people I had just finished with. Apparently, they walked home and enticed a fourth person (also without a license) to drive them to their original destination (McDonald's). I issued another set of citations and called the tow truck to impound their second vehicle. I'm not sure a Big Mac and fries is worth the thousands of dollars in tickets and towing expenses they'll be facing.

If you feel sorry for them, just wait until you're involved in a car accident with a person with no license or insurance. If you don't have full insurance coverage (un-insured and under-insured coverage), chances are you'll be the one paying for everything -even when it's not your fault.