Fleet

Last night at around 2200 hours, I was involved in a pretty bad fleet--although in retrospect, it could've been a lot, lot worse. What is a fleet?

Fleet (n): a car accident involving a police car.

And no, I was not the one driving.

The irony is, I was sent to patrol last night after speaking w/my Sgt., who said they wanted to train me better on Officer Safety issues, and so they preferred me not to patrol on Sunday w/M. after all. So I go out to ride with the fun young "regular" (full-time deputy, not reserve) guy that I'd ridden with before, and what happens? We wreck the patrol car and almost get killed.

We were so close to the end of our shift! In fact we were right down the street from the substation, about to go off duty when a pursuit came over the radio. So we did a fast U and got on the beltway and raced down it, lights & siren and everything. Fun young cop had asked me if I had my seatbelt on and of course, I did--I always do. I know lots of cops don't like to wear seatbelts and they have their reasons, but the statistics show that most officers killed on duty are killed in car wrecks--so I really don't care about the other on-the-surface "good" reasons for not wearing a seatbelt, the odds are that I will need the seatbelt before anything else. I'm glad he buckled up too. For after maybe just 30 seconds of speeding down the beltway, we were in the far right lane, and the vehicle in front of us saw us barrelling towards him and he panicked. First he went left, then he went right--and in order to avoid hitting him, which I later realized probably would've killed us all, as fast as we were going--fun young cop swerved over to the shoulder, and that's where we lost control. We kept going off the shoulder to the grassy median and then started spinning. I saw a street sign heading towards my door, but then we hit it with another part of the car instead and took it out. We may have spinned around down the grass a time or 2 more, then we landed on the feeder, perpendicular to it, and came to a stop. Later, everyone was saying how lucky we were we didn't hit anyone on the feeder, or get hit by anyone there.

So after we landed I looked at fun young cop and said happily, "Good driving!" since we had survived. But he didn't say anything. He got on the radio and said we'd been involved in a fleet. Several drivers were stopping their cars and coming down the grass to check on us. I jumped out and told them I was ok, so they went to the driver's side and opened it to check on my partner. Dispatch was trying to check on us, and she did so twice and when I realized he wasn't answering I got on the radio and said we needed EMS. I told her our location so they could find us. Then other duputies started showing up and I began directing traffic. I was concerned about my partner but I didn't know what else to do. I had shined my flashlight on him and made sure he wasn't bleeding or had broken bones or anything, but he just remained sitting quietly in the car so I just kept myself busy. (Later I found out how pissed off he was about the whole thing and that's why he wasn't talking.)

Then a whole bunch of cops showed up and asked us both if we were ok. I said that I thought I was--I mean, I had immediately jumped out of the car and was directing traffic and didn't feel hurt anywhere. I hadn't hit or bumped anything that I could recall. The traffic unit came out and began doing his investigation. Finally, my partner got out of the car slowly and started walking around slowly, complaining of arm pain, but it wasn't broken or anything. My cell phone began to blow up. 1st, the Lt. called me. Then while I was talking to him the Sgt. called. Then Lt. called back. Then Sgt. again. They were very concerned about me and if I had any injuries. Lt. ordered me to tell S that after I went to sleep that night, to wake me up every couple of hours and talk to me and make sure I was ok, in case it turned out later I had a head injury no one knew about. And that if I felt hurt the next day, to immediately notify everyone so the paperwork could be done on my medical and the county would cover everything. Then the Lt. said, "And good job on the radio." I called S and told him what had happened, then called my mom as well.

When my partner finally emerged from the car, the guy who had unintentionally caused our accident by getting in our way was standing there, all concerned. My partner told the other deputies to put him in the back of a patrol car--that's how pissed he was. But another deputy said he was just going to get his information and led him away. Well, guess what??? Come to find out this guy had 3 open warrants! Knucklehead! Turd! He went off to jail and his car was towed. (Maybe that's why he freaked out so bad when he saw us behind him, who knows?)

So almost 2 hours later, it was finally all over. Everyone's information had been gotten, all the witnesses interviewed, EMS come and gone, and all the other deputies went back to work. My other Sgt., a female, had come on the scene since she lives nearby, and told me again what a good job I had done on the radio. I blew it off, saying, "Ok, whatever", but she said no, that even the regulars were saying how calm and controlled I'd sounded, that I hadn't been a blubbering, panicking drama queen. One of the other Sgt.'s had asked me if I had been scared, but I said I never was, not for one second, b/c I had every confidence that my partner was going to control the car and we'd be ok. Well, I was half right. Then the female Sgt. gave me a bit of interesting information: this was fun young cop's 5th fucking fleet! Holy shit! Later he was saying it was his 4th fleet, but still... this latest one will probably get him a week off of work--unpaid.

The patrol car was towed away by the county. Besides the front tire being blown to bits and a few dents on the body, I think it's going to eventually be ok. The tow truck driver said even the undercarriage was all right.

So S did wake me up periodically during the night and everything has been fine so far. They thought I might be sore today but I feel fine. I'm hoping it stays that way. I prayed over and over last night that I would stay as fine as I felt, that no internal injuries would pop up, etc. You never know. Look at my lawyer: rear-ended on Monday, in the ER on Thursday.

Tonight we go to pick up the baby, then enjoy the wrestling PPV at the sports bar. Thank God I'll be around to enjoy it all!