Hit and Run

By Douglas V. Gibbs

I don't think I am going to press charges - although many people have urged me otherwise.

Construction Zones have signs, barriers, and a massive amount of orange cones in place for a reason.  When that construction site is regarding road work, the workers are not protected by a fence, or the luxury of being separated from public traffic.  As a transfer driver, the job becomes even more perilous, with the reality of having a large vehicle one must squeeze into small construction sites, or near them; and having to get out of the vehicle and transfer the box, which exposes the driver to any mishaps should motorists decide to disregard all of the precautions taken by the job site to separate vehicular traffic from the construction work being performed.

In the City of Wildomar, in southwest Riverside County just north of Murrieta, California, road work is being performed on Cherry Avenue, between the very busy Bundy Canyon Road and Interstate 15 onramps/offramps area, and Waite Street.  At the end of Cherry Avenue, where it meets Bundy Canyon Road, the construction crew erected barricades, orange cones, and a massive sign that said, "Road Closed."  Next to that sign was a detour sign pointing toward the easterly direction up Bundy Canyon Road.  At the other end of Cherry Avenue, at this particular stretch, where the roadway intersects with Waite Street, another set of cones, signs, and metal barricades were set up.  At the "Waite" end of Cherry, there was also a young man performing traffic control for work also being performed on Waite Street.

At the bottom of the hill, where Cherry and Bundy Canyon intersects, there was an opening in the barricade just big enough for my big rig to squeeze through.  The small entrance point was there specifically for enabling construction equipment and vehicles to be able to enter the area.  Then, as I traveled up Cherry, on the left is a dirt field area, where equipment and material being used on the job was being stored during the day.  I used the field to turn around, and then I parked my truck on the street, on a downhill.  I need it to be a downhill (or at worse, level ground) in order to be able to transfer my trailer box into my truck box when it is time to dump the second half of my load of material.

After I disconnected my truck from the trailer, I moved the truck back onto the dirt area, positioning it to back up into the existing pile of road base.  As I did so, the loader operator was driving his massive piece of equipment up Cherry from Bundy Canyon.  A red pickup, which did not belong in the area because the driver had disregarded all of the barricades, cones, and signs, was driving behind the loader.  Seeing the loader coming towards me, I grabbed my paperwork for him to sign, and walked over to him as he came to a stop just past my trailer, blocking the job-site intruder behind him.

Following a motion I made towards the truck, the loader operator said, "He's not supposed to be in here.  He can wait.  Bring me your paperwork."

The loader is very large piece of construction equipment, so I had to step up on the bottom rung of the ladder on the side of the machine to reach the paperwork on my clipboard to the operator.  He grabbed it, signed it, took his copy, and returned my clipboard to me.  With only one hand free, I stepped down off the ladder, backwards, and as my first foot hit the ground, and I began to step back with my other foot to achieve a proper plant, the red truck behind the loader decided to go into motion, squeeze between the loader and my trailer, and proceed up the street.  His right wheel-well area struck my lower right backside torso, just above the hip, spun me around, and as I spun, my left leg flailed outward, and struck the truck.  It nearly knocked me to the ground.  I barely caught myself before completely losing balance.

The driver of the pickup truck continued forward, not stopping to check if I was okay, or to apologize.  The loader set his equipment into motion to follow the pickup, and at the top of the street the traffic control person held up his stop sign, and told the vehicle to stop.  The red truck worked his way around the barricade, and made his escape, during which time the traffic control person snapped a picture of the vehicle's license plate with his smartphone, and the driver yelled out his window, "It was his fault."

Then, the red truck disappeared up the street.

How stupid do you have to be to perform a hit and run in a society where everybody has a camera on their phone they keep in their pocket?

I believe this driver was your typical motorist.  In a hurry, not wishing to wait for anything, and unwilling to abide by rules unless he believes there is a risk he can be caught.  It is that kind of mentality that suddenly causes traffic jams because everybody slams on their brakes to reduce their speed to the limit when a police vehicle comes into view.  These are the people that roll through stop signs, cut off other motorists, weave through traffic, and sometimes jump into carpool lanes when they are the only one in the vehicle.  They speed, change lanes too often, and merge into traffic poorly - and they do all of this while brushing their hair, eating a burger, putting on eye makeup, reading notes, and checking their text messages.  They are fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, daughters and sons, and they don't worry about their actions until their actions cause a problem - then, like most people in society, and pretty much every politician, deflect the blame back to the person they committed their careless act against.

It was criminal what this guy did, and this morning my right hip and left lower leg (and surprisingly, my left shoulder) are pretty sore.  After speaking with me last night, the police officer investigating this went to the offender's house to take his statement.  I am thinking the fact that the officer showed up at his door over this, will probably (hopefully) be enough of a shake-up to make this guy think a little more in the future.  I am not interested in filing charges against an average guy who was just being momentarily stupid, and then putting him in jail for a hit and run, if he will learn his lesson through this "close call."  However, the confirmation that he knew he hit me by saying "it was his fault" out of his window as he reached the top of the street, is the one thing that has me thinking that maybe, for the purpose of ensuring this person is not going to be able to do such a thing again, I should go ahead and press charges.

I just hope my instincts are correct, and this will be a learning experience for him, and there will be no need to press charges.  The thought of going after someone in such a way is not appealing to me.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary