On the way to work this morning I waited impatiently at the on ramp for 169 South at Plymouth Rd. The thought crossed my mind that I should just go… that light is slow sometimes. I waited. The light turned green. As I got up to speed I signaled my lane change and moved to the left approaching the 394 overpass. At that moment I noticed a small car–I don’t know which brand, maybe a Scion maybe an Aspire–I just couldn’t tell. The car was moving slowly over to toward the wall that separated 169’s northbound and southbound traffic. My first thought is that the driver fell asleep. My second was that the driver may not have had control of the vehicle because at that moment he began to scrape the wall. Debris was flying everywhere and everyone was giving him distance. All this was happening less than 40 yards away from me!
I went for my cell phone.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that called the police this morning. Before I could dial there were red lights in my rear-view mirror. All of the surrounding traffic moved aside and what looked like a Golden Valley cruiser–finally caught up to the maniacal driver about a quarter mile before Minnetonka Blvd. Lights still going and sirens at full, the driver seemed not to care or still not have control of their own vehicle. For whatever reason, the car was not stopping.
The policeman in the cruiser had another idea.
The cruiser then rammed the car from the rear right side and began to push the car against the wall to make it stop. The bumper flew off the offending vehicle! The driver then attempted to accelerate but the cruiser was on him like super glue. More debris was thrown as the car ground to a halt just left of the fast lane past Minnetonka Blvd. At that moment another cruiser was pulling up–this time a State Trooper.
As the remaining traffic made it’s way around and I got my chance to see the yahoo in the vehicle. It was a white male, possibly in his 40s and as I watched the officer talking to him from the driver-side the man calmly lifted his beverage straw to his mouth and took a sip. His head was bobbing a bit–it looked to me that he simply didn’t care and was possibly drunk.
So–That was my morning. Unfortunately, the brilliant Jimmy Olsen, played by Adam Kooyer left his camera at work and had no way to take a shot or a video. So I feel kind of dumb. But it was still exciting.