The Chase - July 12, 2011

Once again I neglected my mass of blog followers (haha) - but a month is better than years, right? I will copy below what I posted on facebook about my hit & run adventure of July 12, 2011 :) Good news is, insurance company wasn't too hard to deal with and the Pilot should be back from the shop on Monday. (Yay for no more little rental car - I miss my SUV!)

It all began as a trip out to run some errands. I had been driving around, making deposits, etc for a bit. Keaton was still asleep in the car, so I decided to give him a few more minutes & run over to Michaels. (I have been waiting for the foam brushes to go on sale again for a while & they finally are :) ). So off I headed towards the freeway.

As I was nearing the onramp on 9000 S, I felt/heard a crunch & looked left to see a small car moving back into his lane. There was no place to immediately stop (we were entering the ramp), so I kept track of the car & looked for a place to stop, assuming he would stop also. I started to pull over at a wide shoulder, but realized that the other driver was not stopping, so I continued on the freeway & as I got closer, he moved over into the left lanes. Are you kidding? The guy was trying to run!!

So I whipped out my iPhone & called 911 to report him & make sure that he didn't get away without paying for our repairs. At this point I didn't even know if we had any or much damage, but no way was I letting him get away. I stayed on the phone with dispatch & then with UHP, updating them on our location, as he continued at normal to fast freeway speeds. Sometimes there was a car between us, sometimes I was right behind him. Never thought I'd be in a car chase in my life! He kept on going & at one point I remember thinking "holy cow, I'm going to end up chasing this guy to Bountiful."

Finally, just before the 600 South exit to downtown, he started to pull into the right lanes. At about the same time a UHP trooper pulled beside me, then pulled behind the guy & pulled him over. I stopped behind the UHP car, spoke with the trooper & 2 troopers who showed up as well. The guy admitted he knew that he had hit me, had my paint on his car, etc. and told some story about how he was trying to pull of at an exit - LOL - one of these days I will count how many exits he passed, while I followed him in the LEFT (fast, non-exit) lanes.

I have to note here that I had a moment of slight panic, where I thought, crud, what if I followed the wrong guy. Haha. It was just the adrenaline making me worry though. I knew I had my eye on him the whole time.

So, reports, drawings, more questions from troopers, talking to John on the phone while filling out reports, etc... Keaton woke up about the time we pulled over. So huge kudos to him for being so pleasant the whole time we were sitting there!! While I was doing reports, John was apparently found out which trooper was filing the report, and called him to make sure the guy really would get a citation. Kinda freaked the trooper out that my husband had called him, lol. What can I say? Sometimes it helps to have law enforcement knowledge/connections :)

Anyway, the trooper had some not-so-kind words to describe the guy, told John that we had nothing to worry about, and told me that it appeared that his insurance was legit (whew!). So on my way I went. I was kind of tempted to stop & shop at Gateway or something, since I had found myself downtown unexpectedly. But I was still a bit shaken & didn't have shopping energy, so we headed home. 

K got onery (can't blame him, after being in the car for-ev-er & being super hungry), and my phone was dying, so changed my mind & headed to John's parents house for some rest, food & iphone charger :) Thank heavens for great in-laws.

So, now we begin the next chapters of this unexpected adventure - insurance companies, car repairs, probably a few car-less days, etc. 

And better believe there are some prayers of gratitude (for safety, for not being stuck with car repairs on our non-existant budget, etc) coming from my house tonight!!