I had to make an early morning trip up to my hometown for a funeral. I needed to also work in the afternoon and knew I might cut it close getting back to town. I attended the graveside service and skipped the gathering afterwards to have time to drive back home. On my way out of my little home town I got behind a big U haul truck towing a car trailer with an SUV on it. Immediately this rig ran off the road and into the ditch then jerked back onto the road. Then it crossed over the line and went into oncoming traffic. I was like "Holy Sh*t" he almost crashed. Then it happened again and again. I called 911 and reported it to dispatch. I let them know I was off duty and going to follow the vehicle safely and give them updates.
This area is very rural and one lone officer patrols it. He was not in the area. This vehicle ran off the road and crossed into oncoming traffic over a hundred times in the 40 minutes I followed him. WE went through another small town and the vehicle made it through town. Once we climbed a big mountain he was still running off the road and almost hit someone for the third time. I recalled dispatch and gave an update and they told me the officer was going to be delayed. I let them know this guy was going to not be able to make it through the up coming canyon.
What a hopeless feeling following this guy knowing he could crash at any minute. I started to ask myself what I had in the car for supplies if he did crash. I realized I had nothing in this vehicle. I called my work and asked them to look at the dispatch logs and tell me where my officer was coming from and when they put it over the air. They looked it up and I figured he was at least 45 minutes behind me even at patrol car speeds.
When we got to the first hard corner with no shoulder he crashed like I expected. He ran the trailer into the rocks and blew the tires. He never stopped, he kept going continuing to run onto the shoulder and over the center line. The tires started smoking and I had called dispatch to inform them he crashed and kept going. Down the mountain he managed to get around another sharp turn and then on the last left before the bottom he went into the ditch hard and that slowed him down as he jerked the wheel left. That move sent him into the oncoming traffic and all the way over to the left shoulder. That shoulder was wide enough to park on and since he slowed so much on this 120th+ wild ride he actually stopped. I was right behind him and ran up to his door and got him stopped for good.
Turns out he is a Vietnam vet moving from Michigan to California. He has Leukemia from agent orange and needs his medical care. He was trying to get to the next city to make a real estate appointment where he had to sign papers on the sale of his Michigan property before the buyer backed out. I assisted him in talking to the agent to deny the signing, I called u haul for him and told them what they needed to bring to fix him, I made sure he stayed in the AC as it was 110* outside. The old man was very tired and he was now concerned we would write him a ticket. I told him no ticket and that we just wanted him to be safe. I stayed with him for 45 minutes until the officer arrived. This officer is a co-worker and friend of mine.
The plan was to get u haul there to fix the trailer and the old man was going to rest so he could continue his trip. The officer stayed with him until u haul showed up. From the time I called u haul it took five and a half hours to get the trailer fixed. The old man had plenty of time to rest.
Once at work and seven hours later calls started coming in of a reckless driver. It was my guy again. He had made it off the mountain and once on the flat freeway he was having trouble again. No other calls came in and he was not spotted by police so I assume he made it to his destination. Crazy he did not die or cause someone else to die. Other than being tired he seemed perfectly fine.
This area is very rural and one lone officer patrols it. He was not in the area. This vehicle ran off the road and crossed into oncoming traffic over a hundred times in the 40 minutes I followed him. WE went through another small town and the vehicle made it through town. Once we climbed a big mountain he was still running off the road and almost hit someone for the third time. I recalled dispatch and gave an update and they told me the officer was going to be delayed. I let them know this guy was going to not be able to make it through the up coming canyon.
What a hopeless feeling following this guy knowing he could crash at any minute. I started to ask myself what I had in the car for supplies if he did crash. I realized I had nothing in this vehicle. I called my work and asked them to look at the dispatch logs and tell me where my officer was coming from and when they put it over the air. They looked it up and I figured he was at least 45 minutes behind me even at patrol car speeds.
When we got to the first hard corner with no shoulder he crashed like I expected. He ran the trailer into the rocks and blew the tires. He never stopped, he kept going continuing to run onto the shoulder and over the center line. The tires started smoking and I had called dispatch to inform them he crashed and kept going. Down the mountain he managed to get around another sharp turn and then on the last left before the bottom he went into the ditch hard and that slowed him down as he jerked the wheel left. That move sent him into the oncoming traffic and all the way over to the left shoulder. That shoulder was wide enough to park on and since he slowed so much on this 120th+ wild ride he actually stopped. I was right behind him and ran up to his door and got him stopped for good.
Turns out he is a Vietnam vet moving from Michigan to California. He has Leukemia from agent orange and needs his medical care. He was trying to get to the next city to make a real estate appointment where he had to sign papers on the sale of his Michigan property before the buyer backed out. I assisted him in talking to the agent to deny the signing, I called u haul for him and told them what they needed to bring to fix him, I made sure he stayed in the AC as it was 110* outside. The old man was very tired and he was now concerned we would write him a ticket. I told him no ticket and that we just wanted him to be safe. I stayed with him for 45 minutes until the officer arrived. This officer is a co-worker and friend of mine.
The plan was to get u haul there to fix the trailer and the old man was going to rest so he could continue his trip. The officer stayed with him until u haul showed up. From the time I called u haul it took five and a half hours to get the trailer fixed. The old man had plenty of time to rest.
Once at work and seven hours later calls started coming in of a reckless driver. It was my guy again. He had made it off the mountain and once on the flat freeway he was having trouble again. No other calls came in and he was not spotted by police so I assume he made it to his destination. Crazy he did not die or cause someone else to die. Other than being tired he seemed perfectly fine.
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