Thank God for Red Lights!

In the town I worked, we have three major U.S. Highways. Two of them are at right angles to each other in the northeast part of town by the river. They go west and south respectively. At the south side of town, the third enters from the east and arcs out in a “c” shape curving until it meets the westbound one on the northwestern side of the city. These are all 4 lane roads with double turn lanes where they intersect. [I bet you couldn’t tell that I teach Geometry from that description]. They were designed to carry about a third of the traffic that actually travels them daily.

One afternoon, right in the middle of lunch hour rush, our warrant detail went to an area that at one time was a tiny city that we had incorporated. Something went wrong and he yelled, “Shots fired.” over the radio. They were in my zone but I could not have been in a worse location to respond. I was in the northern most corner of the city and they were directly south just outside the city limits. The only direct route was down the four-lane. Most people would think that a four-lane would be better that a side street, but because of the amount of traffic, it is not.

I flipped on my lights and siren and southbound I went. I was traveling 60 to 70 miles per hour through the part of town that was thick with traffic lights. I had to slow enough that I could stop if cross traffic didn’t yield. I passed most of the traffic in the left lane and swinging over into the turn lane when people traveling south failed to yield. I would like to interject that a driver should pull to the RIGHT when an emergency vehicle running code approaches from the rear.

I got out of the traffic lights and picked up speed. I was hitting between 90 and 100 mph as I approached the intersection of the two 4-lanes. My nerves were on edge and I had a death grip on the steering wheel. Most everyone had pulled to the right like they were suppose to do, but there was this one car in the left lane that had not responded to my approach. I was barreling down on top of him pretty fast and saw him look into his rear view. We actually made eye contact. He started pulling to the right and I accelerated. Just as I was about one car length behind him, he changed his mind. WAIT, IT’S A WOMAN’S PEROGATIVE TO CHANGE HER, NOT A MAN’S! HE started pulling left.

All I could do was lock it down! I lost traction and started sliding sideways. Remember that I was going at least 95 mph when I hit the brakes. I literally slid past him, missing him by a breath and a smile. My language at the time would melt your monitor so I will omit it. I steered into the skid as I got to the intersection. Thankfully, no one was in the east bound turn lane or I would have taken them out with the passenger side of my car.

The light for the turn lane turned green as I got it straightened out. I floored it, back up to 100 mph or so, and continued to the call. We got the guy out of the house without incident thanks to a little pepper spray. He did not have a gun! The officer swore that he did not say that he did over the air. What ever he said, we all thought he said shots fired. Even the dispatcher thought that was what he said. After he was in the back of someone’s patrol car, I had to sit down. My legs were shaking so bad that I literally could not stand up. I kept thinking that mere seconds or inches could have been my life or the lives of others over a misdemeanor warrant!