Month: <span>May 2008</span>

A rather dramatic evening.

Geoff and I are driving home from my parents after a ‘missions trip meeting’ (More on that later)and there’s this car stopped at the lights when it shouldn’t have been and slightly off centre. We drive past and check behind and see this white head slumped over the steering wheel. After a quick, “I think we should check that out”, we pull a U’ie and are walking to the car as another guy pulls up, Geoff calls 000 – two older ladies pull up. There is a woman in the car, (not old… just blonde so it looked white) she is completely passed out, snoring slightly, smells of alcohol. Old lady 1 is talking a mile a minute, pushed in to check her breathing and trying to process by talking some more, the guy is directive but laid back, puts the handbrake on etc. Geoff is still on the phone. Finally an ambo comes. Lady 1 is still talking, the paramedics manage to finally wake the woman up with a good amount of shaking, lady 2 (with lady 1) is sitting in the car whinging loudly about how she’s a danger to those on the road, lady 1 is still talking. I’m standing to the side not getting in the way, feeling angry at lady 2, and impressed- the meds are professional and efficient. The girl is still quite drunk and coping reasonably well although fairly shaken and eventually resigned to the fact the cops are on their way. You can’t help but feel sorry for her. The police arrive, things get sorted, details taken. The paramedics are about to head off and come back for their correct set of keys, we have a bit of a chuckle and then follow their lead in leaving.

The woman is INCREDIBLY lucky she passed out at the traffic lights and mostly on her side of the road – which is far less busy at night although still carries a fair amount of traffic. Her car was a dark colour and quite small and would have been easy to miss. She is fortunate that people noticed soon enough to stop around her and respond (somewhat) appropriately.

There it is kids, don’t drink and drive. She was apparently only driving all of two minutes down the road towards home.