Here's a copy of my incident report about why I was late to work the other day. It was my regular day off, but I agreed to come in to cover for one of the other guys. He got super bent out of shape about me being 8 minutes late. Good times.
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On the afternoon of 30 November, 2011 at approximately 1308 I was driving from my personal residence to my assigned shift at Station 3. I was headed northbound on 88 just south of Greenville in the #2 (slow) lane. A small silver Toyota passed me at approximately 85-90 mph. The vehicle began swerving into the center divider and #2 lane, and slowed abruptly about 1/4 mile ahead of me, nearly having multiple collisions. I slowed my vehicle in anticipation of further erratic driving behavior and matched my speed to the other vehicle.
I then observed the driver and passenger hitting each other, which was causing the vehicle to swerve and brake in an even more erratic nature than before. I was unable to determine whether the two were assaulting each other with malicious intent or engaged in horseplay, but either way the situation created an extreme and unacceptable safety hazard to the two of them, the back seat passenger, myself and all the other motorists in the area. The driver braked hard and cut back into my lane, and I was able to obtain the vehicle's license plate number. The driver sped up quickly, pulled to the shoulder and nearly stopped. He then accelerated quickly back to 85-90 mph, rounded a bend and disappeared from my view.
At 1309 I called Greenville PD's dispatch to advise them of the situation. They didn't have any units in position to initiate a traffic stop and transferred me to the Highway Patrol. I was on the phone with the SHP dispatcher for 4 minutes and provided a complete description of the vehicle and the circumstances, as well as the vehicle's last known direction of travel and speed. I advised her of my current location and she told me that she would update the units in the area.
I continued northbound toward Fairview and did not see the vehicle again as I passed through Winchester and approached Georgetown.
At 1319 I received a call back from the state police. The dispatcher asked me if I still had the suspect vehicle in sight, and I told her that I did not. She told me that she had a trooper preparing to initiate an enforcement stop on the vehicle. The dispatcher requested that I stop in a safe position behind his patrol vehicle and wait for him to make contact with me and obtain a statement. I gave her a description of my vehicle and told her I would park in a safe place when I came upon the traffic stop.
I continued northbound through Georgetown and saw traffic begin to slow on the south side of Meadowbrook. At 1328 I rounded a bend just north of the Fairmont Rd exit and observed multiple patrol vehicles on the shoulder with their emergency lights activated. I got closer and saw a silver car in front of the patrol cars, so I slowed down, signaled my intentions and came to a stop approximately 30 feet to the rear of the last squad car.
I sat in the vehicle for about 15 minutes before a trooper approached my vehicle. I identified myself and gave him a detailed account of what I saw. He took down my information and telephone number, and told me that he suspected that the driver was driving under the influence. He thanked me for the call and advised me to drive safe and have a good shift at work.
I left the scene and continued into Fairview to start my shift.
After further followup with the dispatch center, I determined that the trooper arrested the driver on suspicion of driving under the influence.
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Fortunately I was only a few minutes late, and while the boss knew I was going to be a little late, the guy I was relieving had been having a lot of attendance issues himself lately. The boss just wanted me to have the report ready in case the other guy complained to headquarters. I hate being late and pride myself on my attendance, but I figure this was a great reason to show up late. I have no idea why the guy was drunk at 1 in the afternoon or why he and the passenger were smacking each other, but I'm glad the driver ended up in jail before he hurt anyone...
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