On a dead night, in the Spring, I was fishing the Breakers, catch and release, looking for the big one, letting the others go with warnings.
Fix your headlight.
Register your car.
Slow down.
I stopped an old Volvo for all three on the corner of 25th when I heard a roar, an engine screaming with speed.
I looked back to the source of the sound, and saw an Audi racing down the the viaduct over the rail yard, closing a quarter mile in a second.
There were four in the car, one shouting at the driver to turn left onto 25th. She did it at seventy, already a quarter way through the intersection.
The back end of the Audi broke traction. She could not hold the turn. The car launched up the sidewalk curb cut. The front wheels hit air, then the wall of the warehouse at an angle, ricocheting off, back to the street, back to the traffic stop, back towards the Volvo with me standing on the driver’s side watching the Audi arch towards the top of the cruiser, on path to roll down and hit me.
I yelled, Duck!
Then looked to dive over the hood of the Volvo when the airborne Audi’s driver side wheels caught the guide line to the power pole eight feet up. The steel cable captured the car’s axle pivoting the passenger’s side to the concrete. The wheels spun shooting sparks into the night.
And then, I heard the hiss, a giant rush of air, angry, loud, and overwhelming. I followed the sound, looked at the building, and saw the broken natural gas line.
I handed the Volvo back her info.
Leave. Leave now.
“What?”
They hit the gas line. Go!
The Volvo sped off as I ran to the wreck, reaching for my lapel mike.
“7David6. Priority. Crash at 25th and Breakers. Car on it’s side. Occupants trapped. The car ruptured the gas main and it’s sparking.”
At the Audi, the gas is suffocating, I have seconds.
I bark.
You hit the natural gas line.
Get your foot off the gas pedal.
Get out of the car.
It’s going to blow!
The Driver’s side doors burst open. The occupants boiled out and hit the ground.
Run!
We sprinted.
Don’t stop for two blocks. Get out of the blast range.
We made it.
The World arrived.
Fire capped the broken line.
After the accident, during the debrief, one witness said, “I saw the car coming down, saw it turn, saw the officer and thought, ‘Oh my God! That’s a dead cop!’”
And per the DA, the driver of the Audi walked away with a Careless cite.
