“509

“Dispatcher to 509.”

“509, go ahead Dispatcher.”

“509, respond to the 6000 block of Kellam Road, you have an accident, car in the ditch.”

“10-4, Dispatcher, I’m en route.”

Well, here I go again! Every time it rains some fool has to drive like a bat-out-of-Hades and wind up killing himself, or worse, some innocent victim. Why don’t people realize that driving the speed limit during a heavy rainfall is hazardous to their health?

As I turned right off Virginia Beach Boulevard onto Kellam  Road, my hands tightened on the wheel and my stomach began to churn. That, oh-so-familiar feeling, swept over me like a cold chill. I pulled to a stop and radioed my arrival to the Dispatcher and quickly ran to an overturned car in the ditch on the opposite side of the road.

Smoke was spiraling from the hood and the right front tire was slowly turning like a spindle top. The horn was blaring an eerie, low sound like a foghorn moaning off shore. The rain had eased up to a sprinkle and everything seemed to glisten in the low light of the mercury vapor street light on the far corner. I looked down into the front passenger seat area and no one was there. Shining my flashlight in the rear seat area revealed the same thing.

No one seemed to be around, not even the person who called in the accident! I walked around the car, up and down the ditch, nothing. Where’s the driver? What’s going on here?

“509 to Dispatcher, I can’t locate the driver or anyone for that matter. Who called in this accident?”

“509, the caller didn’t give their name.”

“10-4 Dispatcher, better start a wrecker.”

I guess some yahoo ran off the road in the rain, and walked home. Probably had a little too much to drink and didn’t want to be found with his car. The left front of the car was badly damaged. While shining my flashlight in that area to assess the damage, the light reflected off something under the mud.

“Wait…what is that? Is that something in the ditch under the wheel of the car? Oh, no…oh, no…Dispatcher, send me an ambulance, stat!”