Diana and I were just turning off of her street when we got behind some guy swerving a bit. I jokingly asked if the guy was drunk. When he clipped off another guy's mirror turning from the other direction, the answer was obviously yes. He did not stop.
Diana called 911, and the Cleveland police basically blew her off. I trailed him on the freeway, the opposite way we intended to go. His speed varied from 50 to nearly 80. I was not satisfied with the police response, and knew we'd be in a more caring jurisdiction. Since he turned on to 71 south, I knew he'd at least be in Middleburg before too long, where there are always cops.
But it didn't take that long. At the Snow Rd. exit, he plowed into a guardrail at nearly 60 miles per hour. He took out at least a hundred feet of it in a spectacular crash.
My first instinct wasn't to see if he was ok, but rather to feel relief that he didn't kill someone else. Another guy who stopped said he was barely conscious, and obviously fucked up drunk. The Brookpark police showed up, and we filled out statements. The cops pulled beer bottles out.
The strange thing is that I've felt so angry since then. I never actually got a look at the guy, but he could have killed a family. I understand that sometimes people have issues, but no one has any fucking right to put other people's lives at risk.
This has been one strange Christmas.
My wife and I were on our way home one time from a football game. A guy in a trunk in front of us just about took out a Ford Bronco changing interstates. We followed him a little ways and he kept doing the same you were describing about, speeding up, slowing down, swerving, cutting in and out of lanes, making unsafe lane changes. We called the police, they kept us on the line and had us tail him until the police could catch up to him. When they finally did, the followed him about 1/2 mile, waited for him to make a unsafe lane change, then pulled him over. I suppose they did that so they didn't have to rely on witnesses if a trial was needed, I'm also guessing they had enough evidence for a conviction since they had our names/phone numbers and didn't come by for a statement afterwards. The sad thing is, this is the time of year you don't want to hear about some family getting wiped out coming home from Christmas after a day of fun at another family members house. It breaks the heart to see Christmas presents scattered all over the rode because someone didn't know enough to not drive home.
Maybe if the guy is lucky, he will take it to a jury trial and get some guy like Tyler on the jury and he will let him off because the police did not actually see him driving.
The jury's job isn't to make shit up, it's to ascertain whether or not there is enough evidence to convict.
Defense attorney: "How do you know he was driving drunk?"
Me: "You mean besides the two accidents and the beer bottles the police pulled out of the crashed car?"