So this happened yesterday on the way back from Pi-Con. Eric was driving, because he needs practice before his road test. We were on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway, right near exit 12. The road was mostly empty and he was driving the right hand lane. A young man suddenly gets out of a red car and runs across the lane in the the middle, standing on the dotted line between the two lanes. Eric brakes hard, and brings the car to a stop about 5 - 10 feet from the guy. He comes up to my car, screaming I hate it! I hate it! and pounding on the car with both fists, first the hood and then the windshield. The windshield, doing what glass does when its hit like that, breaks. An older man with a beard gets out of the other cars drivers seat and grabs him from behind. I get out of the car and my first thought is, Is he OK (Hes obviously not OK, of course, but he appears physically unharmed). The older one says, Hes autistic. I tell him I understand, and say that we have to at least get him off the road. The driver of the other car was trying to explain what had happened but my first goal was to get everyone off the highway. As we got out of the way, I had Eric pull off to the shoulder and said to the other driver, He really should be in the car, not out here. The autistic kid stopped struggling and looked at me. In the car? he asked. And I managed to take heart the lessons Ive learned from reading Judis posts and said to him, very clearly. Yes, get in the car. And he got in the car. As I spoke with the other driver, I made it a point to be leaning on the door, so that the kid couldnt get back out, at least not right into traffic. Apparently, they were on the way home after a family visit where the kid had been acting out, but on the way home hed starting screaming and hitting himself in the back seat of the car and the driver had pulled over. A police car pulled up and the officer walks up to us. Hed gotten reports of an accident. I explained, no, there was no accident, an autistic young man had beaten my windshield in, but there was no car involved other than mine. And then another police car pulled up. And another. Four highway patrol cards in all, and I had to explain to each of them what had happened. They spoke to me, they spoke to the other driver, they spoke to Eric. I (and the highway patrol) made sure that Eric knew just how well hed performed under pressure, especially for someone with a permit. While I was talking to the police, Eric (or Paul; Im not sure which) called Ellen to let her know what happened. I filled out a police statement saying that no, I didnt want either the driver of the other car or the kid arrested and that there was no car to car contact; the damage to my windshield was done by a pair of fists. Scary and inconvenient and my windshield needs to be replaced, but the important things are that nobody was hurt and that Eric did *exactly* what he should do when driving. Oh, and Rose? The highway patrol officer who took my statement knows Bill.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 20:18:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015