Life continues

After Hans' accident, we're enjoying our rather mundane existence here on the boat. Especially since I could easily be planning his funeral.

Random images pop into my head now and again from our evening in the emergency room. Like when I first spotted Hans on his gurney. He was facing backward and all I could see was his bald head, but I knew it was him and I was so relieved to see him sitting upright. How at one point I noticed that his eyes were red-rimmed and he looked so puzzled and vulnerable which is just not like him. And he would say again and again, "All I saw was a flash of red." "I never saw it coming." And like I said, he'd repeat this over and over. His bruises have grown even bigger and have changed from a lovely shade of magenta to an ugly yellow and in some areas, nearly black.

Last night I finally let Hans take the wheel of our remaining vehicle for a one mile drive to our marina and it nearly did him in. He was shocked at how much it took out of him and how his chest (which is now a hideous mustard yellow) protested from the exertion.

Since Hans only took one day off from work (I would have needed a month) due to this whole fiasco I made sure he did nothing today. And for the first time since we moved here, we never set foot ashore once. I don't think a sloth could grow moss faster than us and so far we've eaten our way through fried eggs, corned beef hash, home made fudge brownies with walnuts, chicken wings, and oven baked macaroni and cheese (I love our propane stove).

Wilbur also jumped on the band wagon and has only ventured into the cockpit a couple of times to take a pee, even though he knows I'm waiting for him to get rid of the entire loaf of banana bread he inhaled when he was left alone while I drove Hans to work. Wilbur (whom I found cowering in our berth) claimed it was a sacrifice on his part as he's very concerned about what that wonderful propane stove is doing to his mama's hips.

"Who, me?"

Our entertainment this weekend has consisted of too many political shows, football, and listening to each others arteries harden.

We're continuing to find out bits and pieces of information about what led to the accident Hans was in that caused so many injuries and damages, and it's very disturbing.
We now know the police were not chasing an armed robber. They were chasing a purse snatcher. And it's not like he was some sort of serial purse snatcher who spent his days running about willy nilly and knocking little old ladies to the pavement thus shattering little old lady hips.
No.
What this dude did was steal money out of the purses of family, and family friends. Of course these victims then ran shrieking to the police about the heinous crimes committed upon them and then stated that 'Junior' swore he'd never be 'taken' and would only go out with a fight. This so reminded me of stories my dad used to tell at the dinner table. Years ago Dad worked with a woman who would complain about how some dirty SOB stole her TV set and it would turn out that the SOB was her father. She would eventually get the TV set back only to have some other SOB steal it (usually a brother or a nephew). These people spent their lives stealing from each other and calling the police more often than we call for take-out pizza.

So this piece of crap is what four policemen felt the need to chase at high speeds through a semi residential area during rush hour. And I have to wonder what went through their minds when they heard the explosion of metal on metal and witnessed pieces of vehicles fly through the air as a direct result of their chase of this desperate criminal.

We've since read in the paper that if the police recognize a perpetrator by name and knows that finding said perpetrator will only be a matter of time a chase is not necessarily warranted. But purse snatching, even if the perpetrator is unarmed is worthy of a chase.

Dear God I'll never jay walk again. I would imagine that's a crime punishable by death.

But only if there's a police car nearby.

Can you tell I'm pissed?

I still think someone has some 'splaining to do!

Especially this dude.

It's always something!

A few years ago a seat belt warning light came on in Hans' car and even though it would cost a chunk of change to fix, Hans had it taken care of anyway.

Actually the mechanic told Hans that he was fixing it whether Hans liked it or not.

Monday night that seat belt repair was put to the test when our car and 270 pounds of force (Hans) came up against an airborn car traveling at approximately 60 MPH. I'm relieved to report that the seat belt and Hans survived, as did the handful of other people in vehicles who were hit by the car that was speeding down the wrong side of the road while being chased by at least four police cruisers.

However, our vehicle and the passenger of the speeding car did not.

All Hans remembers is driving through a semi residential neighborhood on his way home from work when out of nowhere he saw a flash of red and a fraction of a second later he was sitting stock still, air bags deployed, looking down at his legs and thinking, "I guess I'm alive." When he couldn't open his driver's side door he crawled out the passenger side. The flash of red he'd seen was a car and its remains were now resting on the front of our car where it eventually came to rest. Lying in the street a few feet behind Hans' vehicle was a man covered in blood and apparently the driver of the red car. We later found out (via the newspaper) that the passenger was dead and pinned between the red vehicle and Hans'.

This is what we've been able to piece together:

The passenger in the red car was apparently wanted by the police. They saw him sitting in the passenger side of the red car and gave chase.

Four police cars and a fleeing suspect speeding through rush hour traffic in a 35 MPH zone? Let's face it there was only going to be one resolution to this, the only question being, how many cars and/or pedestrians would become victims.

The red car was traveling in the wrong direction in Hans' passing lane when he hit a pick up truck directly in front of Hans (Hans never even saw this it happened so fast). This spun the red car sideways and partially ejected the passenger who then slammed into an SUV. The car continued to spin and was airborn when it landed smack in front of Hans car where Hans T-Boned it and apparently crushed the passenger. A car behind Hans was able to jump the curb and keep from rear ending him. Luckily no one was on the sidewalk. Just down the street however a little girl had been riding her scooter on the sidewalk and her father who was watching her said it sounded like a damn bomb had exploded.

The police were driving so fast they went right past the wreck and had to turn around.

This happened around 5:20 PM, I got to the hospital around 6 PM, and I was allowed to sit with Hans in his little emergency room cubicle. These cubicles consist of curtained partitions thus allowing for absolutely no privacy. I am a very queasy person and for the next few hours I was entertained by the sound of gallons of phlegm being sucked out of a poor mans lungs in the cubicle about a foot away from me. On the other side of us a man started demanding drugs before they even finished wheeling him in, during the insertion of his catheter, and before and after he puked. Hans got to leave for X-Rays and then later a CAT scan while I stayed behind and tried desperately not to throw up too.

I'm not being cruel, I just know I could never work in a hospital.

Except for the nasty bruising that was already showing up from his seat belt, Hans was deemed healthy enough to go home and so we left the hospital sometime after 10 PM. Echoing down the halls behind us as we departed I could hear the escalated cries of our neighbor as he called out, "Dear God would you just give me my drugs!"

Hans took yesterday off and needless to say he's moving around pretty carefully. His left elbow and right knee are very sore and his bruises have expanded and are now a lovely shade of magenta. He's also started in on the fun task of dealing with insurance companies etc... At one point one of the insurance people asked Hans if the offending vehicle had insurance or not and Hans told her he was really sorry but they hadn't exchanged niceties and she'd have to ask the police that question.

Which reminds me. While Hans was getting X-Rayed a woman came in and told me Hans had a $200.00 deductible and how would he like to handle it. I started to say I wasn't sure and then all of a sudden something came over me. I told her Hans was damned lucky to be alive, we no longer have a car, this accident should never have happened, and while I know they deserve payment, as far as I was concerned we weren't giving them a penny, someone else could just cough it up. I then told her my ears were on fire I was so mad. She really was a sweet person though and asked if we were part of that awful accident. She then asked me if I had a police report number yet (we didn't) and she said to make sure we got one from the police before we left. We did.

So today I took Hans to work and we drove past the accident site. It's just feet from the intersection where Hans was going to turn to come home and I can't believe those cars were able to build up such high speeds. They had to have flown through the intersection and we wonder if they actually had a green light!

The blue car is (was) ours and the body of the driver was a few feet behind it. As far as I know he's still alive.

I'm not sure where the red car's engine ended up, and supposedly the body of the suspect is between the cars.

There have already been a lot of questions raised about the necessity for this chase.

While we were at the hospital we were led to believe that it was the result of an armed robbery in progress. And boy oh boy, if the driver lives he's in a lot of trouble including homicide, we were told. We then heard that the police happened to drive by the red car and recognized the passenger as a wanted suspect. In that case was a high speed chase really necessary? They couldn't have radioed that the suspect was spotted at such and such street and was northbound? If four policemen were so close by (and there was at least one unmarked car in the chase), they couldn't have taken turns and drove a few cars behind (this was a very bright red car) until they were in a safer, less congested area? And I have a feeling they would have found him again at some point anyway as he continued living here during his purse snatching, ripping off pawn shops, life. And so far no one seems to know where and when this robbery occurred.

Other's have said that we have to expect some collateral damage when the law tries to keep us safe from criminals.

That's well and good until you or your family become the collateral damage.