CHP officer: Fatal DUI crash ‘a sight that I will never forget’

THE FIRST FATAL ACCIDENT

While I was at the highway patrol academy, I always worried about the accidents I would have to handle once I got out on the job. It didn’t take long to find out. During my first week, I responded to a call of a serious accident on the freeway. Apparently, an elderly couple was driving to their children’s home for the Easter holiday when their vehicle was struck by a drunk driver. When my training officer and I arrived, their entire vehicle was fully engulfed in flames.

I ran up to the vehicle, but the heat was so intense that I couldn’t get near it. The two of them were still seated in the front seat. When I looked at the driver, I could actually see through his head. It was a horrific sight. I then thought about their last minutes on earth, what their children and grandchildren were going to go through, and how everyone’s Easter was ruined due to one irresponsible drunk driver. It was a sight that I will never forget, but I always worked hard to remove the DUI

drivers from our roadways after that incident.

— BS

GREAT ADVICE

One day as a police sergeant, one of my detectives brought me a missing person case involving a 16-year-old girl to ask for my advice. He said the girl was pregnant and her boyfriend was playing football for the city college. So I told him to call the college and ascertain when the next practice was being held. It was the next day, so he and I went to the practice. Not surprisingly, when we arrived at the practice, we observed the missing girl sitting in the bleachers.

We told her to go with us and my detective drove while I rode in the back. We talked to her on the way to her house, which was about 45 minutes away. I told her about life choices and decisions, and how she had some big ones to make. I never really gave it much thought, and never looked into how she turned out.

Many years later, I was filling in

for the Patrol Watch Commander on a Sunday during day shift. I grabbed a sandwich and went to the Little League field to watch a game while I ate my lunch. While sitting in my patrol car, a young woman came up to me and asked me if I remembered her. I couldn’t say I did. She then told me that she was the one that we picked up at the city college and thanked me for my talk with her.

She said that our talk turned her life around and she broke up with the boyfriend, but that she kept the child. She then introduced me to that boy, who was 12 years old already. She also introduced me to her other son, who was 8. She said that she married a good man and had her second boy with him. Her husband adopted the first boy and they were living a good life. Sometimes we need to hear stories like that to make us understand that all of the trials and tribulations we go through are worth it.

— GM

HOME IN TIME FOR THE PARTY

I was on the last three days

of my training to be a highway patrol officer and was working with several other officers in the mountains on chain control. It was miserably cold, dark and snowy and I was looking forward to getting home. A car came down the hill towards the group and it skidded about 400 feet before hitting my patrol car. No one was hurt, but I was irritated that he hit my car and it caused me a lot more paperwork.

After my partner and I finally cleared the scene, we observed two large dogs sleeping on the snowy embankment down the road. We backed up as the dogs just looked at us. It was an isolated spot with no one around so we coaxed the dogs into the car. The dogs had name tags and dispatch attempted to find a number for the owners, but were not successful. We decided the address on the tags wasn’t too far out of our area, so we drove to the house.

As we pulled up, we could see there was a party going on and we could hear small dogs yapping.

We figured it couldn’t be the right house because the big dogs didn’t seem like a match to the small yapping dogs. We knocked on the door and the people inside all stopped and looked at us. We asked if they owned two German Shepherds.

The owners said they lost their dogs in the mountains when the dogs ran after a rabbit. After three days of looking for the dogs, they had to return home. They made another trip to look for their dogs, but never found them. When they were shown the occupants of our patrol car, they were so excited that it became a celebration. It was the best Christmas present they could have received and it made us feel good as well.

— TE

Brian Smith served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and retired as an assistant chief with the California Highway Patrol. He resides in Bakersfield. If you have a personal “Cop Tale” to share, please contact Smith at bmsmith778@ gmail.com.