All of the neighbors whose cars were also affected and who had heard the noises were immediately out front, trying to decipher what had happened, wondering why she didn't stop after slamming into the first car. She was sobbing and people walking by were stopping and it was all quite terrible.
Then the police came and handcuffed her.
The horribleness was tempered, though, by some pretty amazing neighborly camaraderie. We were all astonished and upset together, we felt protective together, we stayed out in the cold together for over an hour talking to each other and the policemen. We managed to laugh a little when we discovered that three of the four damaged cars were insured by USAA. Because that's pretty amusing.
After we went inside I couldn't stop thinking about what happened and couldn't shake this anxious feeling. Driving under the influence is so disturbing, and I'm finding that today I'm mostly just grateful. For the wonderful people who live on our street, for my husband for preventing further damage, for insurance companies, for calm policemen, for safety. For the fact that no one was crossing the street or stepping into their car during those few seconds.
It's unusual for me to write about something like this on my blog but I thought that both the powerfully bad and powerfully good parts of this story were things worth sharing. Drinking and driving is horrendous. Good neighbors are worth their weight in gold. We should be thankful that it wasn't worse, because it could have been.
What a scary ordeal! We experienced a similar incident several years ago when my husband's truck (parked on the street in his parents quiet neighborhood) was hit (and totaled) by a drunk driver in a small sedan. (His truck was pushed more than 50 feet!) It's encouraging to hear about such good neighbors, including your husband.
ReplyDeleteThat's awful--you'd think by now the lesson would have been learned that drinking and driving is the worst possible idea and totally inexcusable.
ReplyDeleteWell, thank goodness your husband is okay! Pretty brave of him to run into the road like that. Drunk driving is a really, really shameful thing to do.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know. He pretty much stayed on the driver's side and yelled at her through her window, but it is scary to think about. It all happened so quickly I didn't have a chance to be nervous, just thankful he'd done something about it.
ReplyDeleteYikes! So glad everyone was okay! I grew up on a fairly curvy road, but our house is on the one straight section and the only passing zone. For that reason (I assume, anyway), we've witnessed at least half a dozen cars go straight into the ditch right in our front yard. Thankfully, I don't know of any serious injuries that have come from it, but it's definitely something that shakes you a bit....
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I thinking about the drunk lady
ReplyDeleteThat was so horrible! I can only imagine the shock the neighborhood felt when that incident happened. It’s never easy to hear stories like that. But if there’s any consolation, it’s that there were no other people in the street that night, and that no one was hurt. I hope she has learned her lesson that it’s never good to drive under influence, or doing any kind of activities that would distract her from driving.
ReplyDeleteKim Hunter