Pedal To The Metal
If that had occurred to me I'd be more than a little upset. I'd scream bloody murder. I'd behave like a raving lunatic. I'd contact the news media, my member of parliament, my local municipal councillor, the police commission, the chief of police. Anyone, any body of influence I could think of. And I'd lash them verbally for what I'd gone through. What might have been a complete and utter disaster if others were in the vehicle I was driving and came to real harm.
The fact that I don't drive, myself, has nothing to do with how I feel. The fact that some poor woman, driving along the 417, intent on arriving at her children's school to pick them up and drive them back home, safely, and instead of her normal routine unfolding, she became a victim; that bothers the hell out of me. It should upset anyone, knowing the facts of the case.
It's true that police have to be alert to criminal activity, to be prepared to act. But react in such a way to what, on the face of it, represented a minor highways act infraction? The driver of the offending car could have been followed and at an appropriate time, stopped and questioned. What occurred, instead, as a result of an expired licence plate sticker was that the police officer who noted that went into emergency mode.
The vehicle's licence plate could have been noted. The police officer might have been better advised to follow at a discreet distance. Eventually he would have discovered, after apprehending the driver under far safer circumstances that the 19-year old had broken probation. And then he would have been charged, not with the 13 offences brought against him, but a notable few.
Speeding, on a busy highway, full of motorists, not a very good idea.
And because a hot pursuit was undertaken, a woman by the name of Victoria van der Ham was involved in a serious accident and might have been seriously injured as a result. That she was not was a little miracle in itself, since her van was forced off the highway by the speeding driver chased by the police officer, landed upside down in a water-filled ditch, and Mrs. van der Ham, securely strapped into her seat, spent 40 minutes trapped, upside-down, before being rescued.
The suspect was travelling at 180 km/h about the time he hit the minivan. He drove evasively and dangerously, intent on losing the cruiser with its flashing lights and sirens. Weaving in and out and around other motorists, other vehicles might have been hit, other drivers might have been placed in danger. There could well have been a fatality. Eventually the driver lost control of his vehicle and landed it in the median.
"I'm very lucky that my two children and my husband weren't with me. All four of us could have been hurt badly", Mrs. Van der Ham observed angrily. And she's right. "I was very lucky. They basically said they thought they would come to the ditch to find a dead body", she said describing the reaction of firefighters who rescued her. As it is she is well bruised, as a temporary memento of her dreadful experience.
The other trauma, the memory of what she went through will remain with her for a much more prolonged period.
The fact that I don't drive, myself, has nothing to do with how I feel. The fact that some poor woman, driving along the 417, intent on arriving at her children's school to pick them up and drive them back home, safely, and instead of her normal routine unfolding, she became a victim; that bothers the hell out of me. It should upset anyone, knowing the facts of the case.
It's true that police have to be alert to criminal activity, to be prepared to act. But react in such a way to what, on the face of it, represented a minor highways act infraction? The driver of the offending car could have been followed and at an appropriate time, stopped and questioned. What occurred, instead, as a result of an expired licence plate sticker was that the police officer who noted that went into emergency mode.
The vehicle's licence plate could have been noted. The police officer might have been better advised to follow at a discreet distance. Eventually he would have discovered, after apprehending the driver under far safer circumstances that the 19-year old had broken probation. And then he would have been charged, not with the 13 offences brought against him, but a notable few.
Speeding, on a busy highway, full of motorists, not a very good idea.
And because a hot pursuit was undertaken, a woman by the name of Victoria van der Ham was involved in a serious accident and might have been seriously injured as a result. That she was not was a little miracle in itself, since her van was forced off the highway by the speeding driver chased by the police officer, landed upside down in a water-filled ditch, and Mrs. van der Ham, securely strapped into her seat, spent 40 minutes trapped, upside-down, before being rescued.
The suspect was travelling at 180 km/h about the time he hit the minivan. He drove evasively and dangerously, intent on losing the cruiser with its flashing lights and sirens. Weaving in and out and around other motorists, other vehicles might have been hit, other drivers might have been placed in danger. There could well have been a fatality. Eventually the driver lost control of his vehicle and landed it in the median.
"I'm very lucky that my two children and my husband weren't with me. All four of us could have been hurt badly", Mrs. Van der Ham observed angrily. And she's right. "I was very lucky. They basically said they thought they would come to the ditch to find a dead body", she said describing the reaction of firefighters who rescued her. As it is she is well bruised, as a temporary memento of her dreadful experience.
The other trauma, the memory of what she went through will remain with her for a much more prolonged period.
Labels: Human Relations, Social-Cultural Deviations, Whoops
posted by Pieface @ 5:45 PM
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