So there I was, driving down Shimmel Road at about 8:45 this evening on my way back from hanging out with Marie. I've got my cruise control set at 50mph because the deer are all over the place in that part of the county. All of a sudden, BOOM!
(Forgive the crappy pictures, it's dark and my camera sucks. My bumper and rear gate is much worse than it looks here.)
Some guy came over the hill behind me and rear-ended me, easily doing 20mph faster than me. In other words, ~70mph on a 55mph road that is literally
covered with deer. I immediately pulled off the road, but he decided to take off. You guys know me well enough to know that there isn't a chance in Hell I was going to let that guy get away.
I immediately called 911 and gave chase. He was driving erratically and I had to drop the pedal to the floor to catch up with him. He finally pulled off at Banker Street, which is 3-5 miles down the road from where he rear-ended me. I stopped about 100ft behind him and turned my emergency lights on. At that point, he got out of the car and walked toward mine. I was ready to take off in case he started anything, but I rolled my window down about an inch so he could talk to me. The doors were locked and my handgun was ready to be drawn.
He was most definitely high on something. I stayed on the phone with the police dispatcher until the police officer showed up (which took 10-15 minutes, even though I was only 3-5 minutes from the sheriff's office in Centreville. Go figure.) The guy kept trying to bribe me, saying "Hey, don't call the police," even though I'd been on the phone with them since right after he hit me. He offered to settle the problem "honorably," and said he'd give me his phone number and pay me whatever it might cost to repair my car. Honor? HAH! Suffice it to say that I rebuffed him, and the police dispatcher told me to tell him that leaving the scene of an accident was a felony. She was pretty cool.
The guy was standing about six inches away from my window, which was definitely intimidating. He wasn't very big, but people on drugs can do things that seem humanly impossible. My hand stayed
very close to my firearm, and I've never been more glad to be carrying. This was how I was dressed tonight...
I was able to leave before the officer ran the breathalyzer. He said they have to wait fifteen minutes before they can administer it, and I was gone before then. He escorted the guy to his cruiser, had him place his hands on the hood of the car, and searched his pockets. He found "something" in the guy's pocket that looked mysteriously like an eightball. Whatever the guy was on, he was weaving all over the place when he walked back and forth from his car and he was definitely intoxicated. Besides, this guy was pretty desperate to get me to hang up and "settle honorably" without police involvement.
I've got an adrenaline high like you wouldn't believe. I thought for sure that guy was going to start something. As it is, I've got a $500.00 deductable that I'm going to have to pay out of pocket (so much for that piano keyboard I planned on buying this month) and my insurance is going to go from $135'ish to about $175'ish.
Things I did well? I kept a cool head under pressure. I never let my voice raise above a conversational tone. I've always been pretty good at that. I also think I did a good job with keeping myself protected. I locked the doors and only rolled the windows down as little as possible. This would've given me time to take evasive action if he would've started something, which would probably consist of stomping on the gas pedal and getting out of danger.
Things I could've done better? Not drive on freakin' Shimmel Road on a weekend after dark. Ever. I also learned an important lesson about carrying concealed. Since I can't carry to work, school, or church, I generally don't carry while I'm traveling to or from those places. That changes
tonight.
If there was one entertaining moment from all this, the guy that hit my car turned awfully pale when I declared to the police officer that I was carrying concealed. The requirement to declare your permit is pretty stupid, but I thought it worked out well in this situation.
-b0b
(...warns about a white four-door Cadillac sedan, license #NRE582.)
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