4:10am Wake-up Call

Friday, June 30, 2006

Goddam kids. I was soundly asleep this morning, when I was abruptly awakened by the noise of an automobile speeding down the street, followed by the loud screeching of brakes, and ending with a loud crash. I took me a few seconds to realize what had just happened, but as soon as I did, I threw open the covers and bolted outside.

Looking around, I could’nt see any immediate evidence of an accident, but I could smell the unmistakeable aroma of freshly-burned rubber. A few houses down the street, I noticed several people loitering near a mid-size truck, sideways, in the middle of a lawn, with its front banged-up. Some neighbors two doors down appeared to be on the phone to 911.

Not hearing any screaming, shouting, crying, or calls of help from anyone on the scene, I figured the situation was under control and not requiring any assistance from me. About 7 minutes later, a police-cruiser finally rolled down the street, and pulled in front of our neighbors who had called 911. The sole occupant of the crashed vehicle was hanging out in their yard, on the phone with someone. The officer stepped out, and asked the young fellow if he was ok.

I could hear some of the conversation, and popo asked the kid his age (18) and if he had been drinking (yes, a little bit). The kid was talking to him mom, probably explaining the situation. Po-po took the phone, spoke to the mom, and put the kid in the back of his car.

While I was observing this from a distance, a slightly older than eleventeen-year-old looking girl walked down from the other end of the street. We exchanged some words, and it turned out she had also called 911. Apparently the same dude was doing donuts earlier at the intersection near her house (few houses down from me), probably showing off to his friends, and then decided to take off down the street, towards my house, at a relatively high speed. Now, our street has a small incline/decline, and is curved, and 80% of the time, people tend to take this turn at ridiculously high speeds, especially for a residential street. I have been awakened many a time by people doing this, and I always end up waiting for the envitable sounds of a crash.

Well, it finally happened this time. This idiot took the turn probably doing 50mph, lost control, swerved, hit a curb in front of this house, either hit a tree or car (his front was smashed in), and ended up in the front lawn of said house. Remarkably, he didn’t crash into the house, which could’ve been disastrous, and probably injured or killed someone.

I told the girl she should tell the officer this guy was doing donuts, but she was hesitant. It appeared she knew of them from high school, and they did late-night donuts at this intersection frequently.

This incident has motivated me to take some action, but I most likely won’t follow through with it. My idea is to get speed bumps put into the whole street, or at least along this section. I would like to get all neighbors to sign a petition, and then present it the city council.

How effective this would be I am really not sure. The only other incident of note occured on this street about 15 years ago in the afternoon, when a dude was speeding down the street in a motorcycle, lost control, and slid into a neighbors yard. My uncle was in town at the time, and upon seeing this, he immediately yelled “CALL 911!” Our neighbor across the street was watering his lawn at the time, and simply stared and continued watering as if nothing happened. Anyway, as I picked up the phone, the guy got up in a daze, picked up his bike, shook his head a little bit, said he was ok, and walked away with his bike.

Crazy shit.

I really hope the fine, upstanding citizens of La Mirada are reading this. If you are, dont be a stupid-ass jerk-wad and speed down my street. I don’t want you tearing up my lawn or house, or anyone else’s lawn or house, and you may think its cool, but its not. And if you like my speed-bump idea, throw me a shout in the comments, and we’ll talk.