April 26, 2007
I had kind of a scare this morning on my way to work. While sitting at the intersection of my street (Wrenwood) and Brentwood yielding to oncoming traffic as I waited to turn left, a car heading north on Brentwood completely ignored the red light and drove at high speed through the intersection.
First, I have to say that I'm very lucky that I was yielding to another car at the time, since otherwise I would most likely have been in the middle of the intersection when the car drove through. Second, the guy I was yielding to should feel very lucky that he hadn't been paying very close attention to the light. Right before the incident, I remember feeling slightly annoyed that the car across the street from me was taking his sweet time driving through the intersection, since I was stuck waiting for him. In retrospect, that was very fortunate for both of us.
As you might understand, I was pretty upset about what happened, so I decided to try and get the driver's plates. I ended up following the driver as he pulled into a parking lot, where he got out of his car and began putting fliers advertising for a mortgage company on other people's windshields. I got out of my car as well, and I was able to get a good look at the driver (an elderly, white male wearing glasses and a navy blue cap) and his vehicle (a maroon Buick Le Sabre). I also grabbed one of his fliers. (I'm not sure why I did this. For evidence, I suppose.)
Because the driver was so advanced in years and because he obviously had no justifiable reason for driving so recklessly (there was no pregnant woman giving birth in his back seat -- I checked), I thought it would be best to call the police and report the incident. I hope this was the right thing to do. I'm still waiting for the police to call me back, and I'm not really sure what the process is for this sort of thing, but I do hope they will be able to do something to get this driver off the road. I'm a little conflicted, because I start to feel bad when I imagine the trouble this may end up causing for the man and his family, but I also really think someone could have been seriously hurt, and so I feel like I have a responsibility to report it. If the police ever get back to me, I'll be sure to update you all on what happens.
And in closing, because I'm so fond of visual aids, and because I really like the new "My Maps" feature on google maps, here is a map summarizing what happened.
Posted by michael at April 26, 2007 04:50 PM
Comments
Wow! You're cleaning up the streets up one elderly-white-male at at time! Thats crazy, you should report him. You're lucky to be alive.
Posted by: Nisha at April 26, 2007 06:17 PM