Can I Get a Witness? (Or, What To Do When You See a Wreck).

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

You did the right thing. One day I was behind a jeep which swerved from the fast lane to the slow lane (3 lanes of traffic), back to the fast lane where it sideswiped a car driven by a poor woman, then swerved back to the slow lane again where it stopped. I stopped also. No one was hurt, luckily, and I gave my name and a statement to the police. It seemed the idiot who was driving the jeep claimed that this woman cut him off. It was very satisfying to say what really happened. About a month later I got a call from the insurance company of the shmuck who was driving the jeep. I got the distinct impression that they gave up any thought of trying to put blame on the woman who was hit after talking to me. That was also satisfying. So you never know if stopping won’t be helpful much later.

I can’t imagine who could think that stopping would not be a good thing to do, assuming it is safe. The neighbors of Kitty Genovese still live, I suppose.

22

It is definitely a law in Texas:

"The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has the statutory authority to suspend drivers licenses for certain traffic violations.

Some of these suspensions are mandatory. These generally involve serious traffic violations, such as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, negligent homicide or aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, any offense punishable as a felony under th e state s motor vehicle laws, failure to stop and render aid, felony drug offenses and other felony offenses under the Controlled Substances Act. 1 Mandatory suspensions are invoked automatically upon final conviction."

23

Hmmmm. Then maybe I thought it was the law everywhere because I used to live in Texas.

And Voyager, I too was sort of looking forward to telling the cops the truth about the situation, which was that the woman who got hit (by the freaked-out kid) was the 2nd car to have run a totally red light (so there was no, "It was yellow when I entered the intersection).

The red-light runner was very frustrated because neither of the people who witnessed the accident saw the phantom left-turning white car which had caused her to slow down in the intersection (when she was already running a red, red light), thus getting herself rammed by the kid.

So I really think she wanted both of us witnesses to go the hell away.

24

I’ve stopped.
Donated a coat for a potential shock victim.
Stopped a well-meaning fool from moving some-one who was injured.
Sent a written statement to the State Police describing the (perfectly sober) physical state of the only black male between 18 & 40 involved in the accident (I still feel good about that one; this is not a fair world.)

Um, your mom’s wrong.

25

For me it involved a subpoena. Well, actually, I was one of the cars that was stopped waiting for someone to turn left on a two-lane. From behind, a couple of other cars didn’t stop and we all ended up mashed together.

One of the guys in the back fought his ticket and he subpoened all of us.

26

So did he beat it . . . ?

27

auntie em, I witnessed an accident back in June and did the same thing you did, right down to starting a thread in MPSIMS. The fellow two cars ahead of me swerved into oncoming traffic and ran into a minivan. A few months later, I got a call from a lawyer’s office asking me to make a statement. It seems that despite having cocaine in his system, a blood alcohol content that was well over the limit, and at least 3 sets of witnesses (me, the car ahead of me, and the car behind the car he hit), the fellow who caused the accident was trying to claim the minivan had run into him.

In my case, since the accident blocked traffic, I had no choice about stopping, but I like to think I would have even if I had had a choice. You did the right thing. Then again, from what I’ve seen of you, I expect no less.

CJ

28

Huh. Strange coincidence, sort of.

Tonight I came home from work, fed the kitties, scooped the boxes, booted the computer, linked to SDMB, clicked on this thread (more or less randomly), saw that the poor hamsters were terribly overworked, decided to give them a chance to catch up, went downstairs to scare up some dinner and a drinkipoo, and walked out onto the deck to enjoy the brisk autumn twilight.

“Hey! Heeeeeyyy! Help me! Hey anyone! Help! Heeeeellllpppp!!!” was what I heard coming from a nearby dark wooded area. A female voice.

Shit.

So I called back to her, “where are you?”, got an answer, ran inside, grabbed my revolver, and went running down to where I heard her.

(In hindsight I should have called 911 immediately, but my reaction was perhaps influenced by adrenaline and maybe the drinkipoo.)

I found a young woman standing by the side of the road crying; she said her boyfriend had been punching her in the face, and she jumped out of the car. He drove back by and told her to get back in the car. But I told her to come with me, told him to go home and cool off. (I did not show the pistol.)

I took her to my house. She didn’t have any serious injuries: no broken bones, no bleeding, no trouble walking, no bruising that I could see-- it wasn’t a medical emergency. Okay.

I let her use the phone, call her mother, her friend, the police, etc. A little while later, a patrol car came by the house… she told the officer she didn’t want to charge the boyfriend with anything…he’s already in enough trouble, he has a DUI, he’s driving w/o a license. … she lives with him, so she can’t go to her apartment. Her mother lives too far away for the officer to drive her to her Mom’s house. She got a hold of her sister, who agreed to meet her and the officer at a shopping center near the county line, and take her to her (the sister’s) house. I would have offered to drive her, but it turned out I didn’t have to.

Bad situation; it could have been a lot worse. But I’m glad I helped out. I’m afraid this woman is not going to leave this guy, but I guess you can’t save people from themselves.

29

A few years back I was right behind a car that changed lanes into the side of another car. I was running late, but pulled up to the guy who got hit, told him I couldn’t hang around but gave him my name and number. The next day, a police officer came to my house. He said the lady who smashed into this guy was claiming he was driving extremely fast and recklessly, which was not the case. I told my story and the officer thanked me, saying there were no other witnesses. Since then, I always stop and leave my name, but I usually don’t wait around.

30

Nope, auntie em. He lost.

31

Uh-oh! What have you seen of me? Dammit, I told my husband not to put those photos on the internet! :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously, though, thanks. I think what kind of blew me away yesterday was my mom’s attitude, not just that it would have been fine not to stop, but that stopping was a stupid thing to do (again, in a situation where I felt that stopping would not put me in grave personal danger).

But I love the old bat.
:wink:

32

Brava, Mariemarie! That’s a situation that I’d NEVAH tell my mother about! In fact, I’d have been scared to get involved in that one. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have (like you said, adrenaline doesn’t stop to ask questions), but at some point (possibly afterwards, in retrospect) some part of my brain would have said, “Wow. I could get/could have gotten my ass kicked.”

Of course, I don’t have a pistol.

Anyway, I think you did a great thing, but yeah. Her reluctance to press charges to keep him out of more trouble tells me that she’ll probably go back, unless her sister ties her up.