You see we went out for a nice early family dinner at this great restaurant at 5pm on a Sunday and just after we left I was driving along and this van came inches from side swipping me. I passed him and made a right turn heading towards home. This guy turned too, he was weaving all over the road, went into the on coming lane a few times missing cars by seconds. I told my husband who was in the passenger seat because he enjoyed a few beers with dinner, to call 911. I knew that it wasn't a situation of this guy playing with his stereo which we thought when we were almost hit by him.
They wanted us to follow him and get his license plate number, which we did, he went everywhere and we followed. At one point he drove off a country road into a deep ditch and we thought for sure he was going to hit a tree, but he kept on going. So we kept on following him, we wanted to make sure that he didn't get away before the police got there.
The 911 operator said they had his address and figured he was heading for home and they were sending an officer there and when he got there we could leave.
Well he kept on driving and headed towards a parking lot (ironically the parking lot to the York Regional Police Clubhouse!!) where we followed him. I went in another entrance and parked back far from him. I told hubby to call 911 again and tell them where we were so they were not waiting at his house. We stayed in case he decide to leave again. We waited for an hour for the police to arrive, where they took him to the police station, towed his van and took hubby's statement.
They stated that he could barely speak but he didn't smell of alcohol. That he was most likely an alcoholic and could hide it well.
We drove for 20minutes with this man as we watched him almost kill many people. I could not imagine just leaving and going home, at one point in our drive around town with this guy we were 1 minute from home. It was a Sunday evening, the kids needed a bath and I had laundry to finish, but that didn't matter.
I have a friend who 18 years ago was hit by a drunk drive early on a Sunday morning, he was in the hospital for a long long time and almost didn't survive, thankfully he did, but he has never been the same since.
I have a friend @SharonDV who was one of these unlucky drivers who was on the road, driving along, minding her own business. Family in tow heading out for a Mothers Day celebration and was hit head on by a drunk driver. You can read more of her story here. I read it a few years ago and it has stuck with me. She is one of the first people I thought of when I saw this guy drive across the center line.
I did what I think anyone should. I didn't think about what I still had to do that night, I just thought about the people like Sharon (or my friend from high school) and how I could not do anything. Very similar to the situation with my son, I could not sit back and not think about how we were lucky, but what if someone else gets hurt.
1 comment:
Yes. You are a Hero. Many, so many would have turned and gone home.
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