This picture was taken 30 minutes after a drunk driver hit my car and left the scene of the accident.
At approximately 2pm on a Saurtday, a man in his mid 30’s drove his new Ford Mustang head-on into the driver’s side corner of my old Volkswagen Cabrio. According to the the main witness, the man then backed up and casually drove away down a residential street hoping that none of the 5 witnesses that were near the accident noticed as he plowed into my car causing it to strike another car behind me. It gets better. As he was trying to flee the scene, two of the witnesses got into a SUV and started following him. The man getting away saw this and thought it would be fun to outrun his noble pursuers in his now badly-damaged new Ford Mustang. After running 3 stop signs and getting up to 70 mph the man ended up parking his car 100 yards from where the accident originally took place. His next clever move was to escape by foot. Trying to avoid suspicion, he walked casually down the street….to his house….3 blocks away. By this time, he had about 5 people following him about 1/2 block back giving the police a call. 5 minutes later the man was arrested with a .25 blood alcohol level. He also had a half-empty bottle of vodka in the front seat of his car and by some miracle he actually had full coverage insurance.
Meanwhile, at chez abram, my girlfriend was getting ready to do some laundry and needed the quarters out of my car. Reluctantly, I was volunteered to fetch them. My first thought as I saw the wreckage was, “that’s not my car, I was parked 10 feet ahead.” Then, I screamed “What the F@*!?” The witnesses were still there and talked me through what happened while the cops were filling out the report where the man parked his car.
This isn’t even the bad part. The car belongs to a friend of mine who is traveling outside of the country for a few months. She left the car in my care because I was selling my Toyota Prius to support my business and to take care of other debts. Thus, effectively leaving me without transportation and my friend having to deal with the remanence of the situation abroad.
In hind sight, I realized that this was a good ending considering the circumstances. The main witness was 15 feet from the collision raking her front lawn. If the car veered slightly more to the left, she would have been in the path of a high-speed Ford Mustang and so would her house. Knocking my car 10 feet back onto the hood of the car behind me required a lot of force and velocity. The 5 pedestrians near the accident that followed him to his house walked away uninjured and no one was killed in the accident. The suspect was caught, arrested and insured. A lot worse could have happened and I am thankful for at least having a car the past few months while my friend was out of the country. She will be receiving a check as this car will undoubtedly be considered totaled beyond repair, which will ultimately extend her travels. I personally don’t think she’s coming back as she looks to be having a lot of fun 
As for the driver, I feel bad for him. The fact that he was driving with a half-empty bottle of vodka in the car and wasted at 2pm is not a good indication of his mental state. It makes me wonder what sort of pain he was trying to drown out. Hopefully, he realizes the impact that this will have on his future and the community he momentarily ripped apart and in some ways brought together. I was astonished to hear that people were willing to risk their safety to chase him down. Studies have shown that witnesses to crimes more often do not help because they think the other witness might or that it is not their place. I am eternally grateful for their help as they have saved me and my friend from a total mess and for my renewed faith in samaritans.
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