Just Past Hamiton, Near Chico

It's 2:45 AM and I'm calculating  the amount of sleep I'll get once I get home before I work in four hours. My girlfriend and I are about 15 minutes out of town, on our way back from Stockton, where we went to visit my little brother for his birthday (he got way too old, way too quick). Highway 32 is pretty much deserted at this time but at the speed I'm going I catch up to another car, 100 yards in front of me. A litte further up, I can barely make out a newer VW Bug. My girlfriend yawns and I habitually yawn after her. It all seems totally uneventful and when the bug, about 200 yards up by now, turns on its blinker and pulls off the road, I don't think much about it. But as we pass the car on the side of the road, I spot that it has driven through some tall grass and hit a telephone pole. I pull over to the side a little down the road. I look at my girlfriend, her eyes are dinner plates.

 "Stay in the car."

She nods.

I run back the Bug and I take a look at the damage: nothing too serious but the airbags are deployed. Terrific. By this time, the other car that was in front of me on the road swung back and pulled over across the street. I watch him run over while I open the door and let the smokey chemicals pour out of the car from the bags. I lean in and see the driver is an unconscious girl in her early twenties.  I listen and feel for breath with my ear close to her lips and nose. She's breathing. Ok, that's good.

"Hey! Hey, wake up!"

"Dude, she's unconscious," the guy behind me points out. Thanks, pal.

"Do you have a phone?"

"No"

"Okay, try and see if she'll wake up. I'm calling 911."

 I walk away to clear my head from the dizzy smells  still coming out of the airbags. The operator relays my call and the Sherrifs are called out, I go back.

"Ok, the Sherrifs are on their way out."

"Oh, ok. This seems to be taken care of so I got to run." He was in no hurry to wait for the cops and he spun back around, headed for town.

I huddled back into the car to talk to the girl and wake her up, something that still sticks in my head. It was only for two seconds but she opened her eyes wide and looked at me, screaming and then bawling and then back to unconsciousness as her eyes rolled back. I jumped back and caught my breath, waiting for them to come take care of her.

 *                  *                *

Needless to say, it was a long night. The cops came, dismissed me after taking my report, and I got two hours of sleep. The next day I called the Sherrif's Department to check on the girl and found out she'd been drinking and passed out driving. She probably pulled over, knowing she was about to lose consciousness but not in time. There were no serious injuries, just a few bruises, and of course the lack of sleep on my part.

This is something I always think about when I go out and drive my own car and ask myself if that's the smartest thing. It helps keep me in check and gives me more motivation to look out for my friends when they need a ride. It's just too bad it often takes something like that, something that messed up someone's life, to catch people's attention and make them aware...