Accidents

So I was reading Dad-Gone-Mad today and it reminded me of my first accident.


I remember when I was 16 with my drivers permit.  My parents let me drive to go to my Great-grandfathers house in LA. Well it was a stick shift and as traffic does on the 5, it backed up fast.   Being in experienced, I hit the damn clutch instead of the brake and rear-ended the car in front of me.

Now this was in the years before the seat belt laws and the lady in the car that I hit wasn't wearing hers. Her face hit the steering wheel and it punched out her front teeth with the associated blood flowing.

After making sure my folks were okay and the lady was as good as she could be, the shakes hit me.  I was sitting there on the freeway looking at this mangled mess that I had caused while the CHP walked around and did the investigation. 

That's when it happened.

A dude in a raised 4x4 cruised by and said "Hey! No parking on the freeway!"

I lost it.

All the guilt, fear and anger welled up in me and I ran after that S.O.B (even now, 24 years later, I'm getting worked up about it).   I almost caught him when one of the CHP officers caught up with me.  I don't know exactly what I would have done if I had caught up with that guy, but I'm sure it would have resulted in me meeting a Judge.