Another rookie, bitter cold, and bumper cars

I started evaluating another rookie tonight. My previous rookie passed and starts her second week of evaluation tomorrow afternoon. My current rookie, JS, has lived all over the US and proudly served in the military. Thankfully he does not like to be a passenger either, so he has been driving nice and slow and smooth for me. It is a nice change from my two previous female rookies who were speed demons.

Currently, the Houston area is in the middle of some unseasonably cold temperatures. It is currently 30 degrees, with the wind blowing 10 mph, and humidity at 88%. The temperature is forecast to drop even further into the mid 20s. We also had moisture with the cold temperatures. That equals snow and/or ice. Houston had its earliest recorded snowfall on Friday. So far this year, Houston has had more snow than Chicago. That just does not sound right, but it is. Some parts of town experienced some accumulation, but we did not at our house. After the thrill of some snow, concerns turned to the roadways and the possibility of ice. I can tell you that the possibility became a reality.

Our first call out of roll call was a one vehicle major accident on the Southwest Freeway at Kirby. Since JS has lived all over the country, with quite a bit of time spent up north, I decided to let him drive. We arrived at our accident scene to find a fire truck, three other police cars, and 6 vehicles that had been involved in accidents. Not good. From what we could figure out, this is what happened. A Toyota Truck came up an entrance ramp which was wet, but not frozen. The Toyota somehow lost control, spun, hit the wall, and came to a stop in the right lane of the freeway. No other vehicle was involved at this point. The driver took out his phone and called for emergency services. While he was doing that, a PT Cruiser filled with nuns (at least they looked like nuns, without the habits of course) was coming up the same entrance ramp behind another vehicle. The other vehicle suddenly swerved. The PT Cruiser did not. The Cruiser slammed on the brakes and amazingly stopped before hitting the Toyota truck. Unfortunately for the PT Cruiser, a black Honda Element could not stop and plowed into the back of the PT Cruiser. They sat there for a few seconds until a small red Geo driven by a European soccer fan came up over the hill and smashed into the Honda Element which then hit the PT Cruiser again. Getting the idea here? An Infiniti G37 was next. The driver was either not drunk, not on a cell phone, not texting, or maybe just actually paying attention, because he was able to stop before hitting the red Geo. However, the tan Nissan Maxima being driven by a reclining Snoop Dogg wanna be could not stop and just destroyed the back of the Infiniti. Luckily for everyone, a big red fire truck arrived right after that and was able to get everyone else on the freeway to move over a lane or three and avoid the pile.

So, we were dispatched to a one car accident, and we found three separate accidents involving 6 different vehicles. Let me tell you, that is a bad call to get on evaluation. Luckily for JS, other units were on the scene. One unit took the original one vehicle accident. Amazingly, no one else had hit the truck. Another unit took the Infiniti and Snoop Dogg accident. That left JS with the middle three car major accident. Piece of cake, even though it took him 4 hours to complete the report. While JS was completing the report, 5 other accident occurred at the same location. They finally stopped hitting each other after the sand trucks went through the area and dropped a little traction on the road.
Later we were sent to a person down call at a nearby apartment complex. We arrived to find a Seal look-alike in the driver seat of a Pontiac. He was fine. His passenger was not. They had gone out drinking and she had about 10 too many. She was passed out in the passenger seat. Seal did not know what to do with her. She lives in Galveston. He was worried about taking her inside of his apartment. He was afraid that when she came out of the alcohol induced coma, and find herself in his apartment, that she would claim that he had raped her. I told him that as long as she did not wake up naked and sore, he was probably ok. I told JS to wake up the female so that she could walk into the apartment complex. JS was not sure how to wake her up. I told him to grab his flashlight and then to give her a sternum rub with the flashlight. Luckily for her, just as he was about to bruise her sternum, the contents of her stomach made an appearance. JS was kind enough to hold her hair out of the way for her. However, in his zeal to help her, she threw up on him. Thankfully, she only hit his hands which were easy enough to wash. Once we had her up and awake, Seal walked her inside.

That call left me with a few questions. First, the bars close at 2 AM. It was now 4 AM. What was Seal doing with her for the last 2 hours? Just driving around hoping that she would wake up? Feeding her dinner at the House of Pies? Second, what did Seal expect the police or fire department to do with his drunk friend? He is not the ideal designated driver. You go out with him, and have a few beers expecting Seal to take care of you, and he calls the police to come take care of you. That is not the kind of friend I want to hang out with. Lastly, when it is 28 degrees outside and the roads are dangerous and icy, why go out and get drunk? Why not just buy a bottle of wine and hang out inside? So many questions, so little time.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous