Tragedy

Tragedy always comes along unexpectedly, and you’ll never know how you’re going to react. Here are three tragedies I will never forget.

The first one involves an auto accident.

Me and my friend Bob Kopp were headed east on the Long Island Expressway when we a approached a portion of the highway that had a large grass medium between the east and west bound traffic. The grass medium sank in a gentle curve in the middle. There was a station wagon just ahead of us and they were in the lane closest to the medium. Suddenly the station wagon’s left front wheel drifted into the grass medium, as I said it had a gentle curve towards its center and because it had recently rain that made the grass soggy. This caused the station wagon to tilt to the left as the wheel sank deeply into the soggy grass. Suddenly the entire left portion sank very low and the station wagon began to tumble sideways and flipped over and over on its roof. After what looked like several spins it came to a halt. The roof of wagon was shifted to one side forming a parallelogram. We stopped and I ran towards the wagon, there was an older woman pinned between the roof and bench seat, so I climbed through the window to shut off the ignition to prevent the wagon from catching fire.

I then saw a woman in the middle of the road, her name was Janet B. Hayden, apparently, she was thrown from the wagon as is spun down the highway. I lifted her by the shoulders and laid her head on my lap, she had a very serious wound on her head, suddenly she made a groan, expelled her last breath and went limp, she was dead.



The next involves a young woman being hit by a pickup truck.

I was headed west on Santa Monica boulevard, as I approached Centinela Avenue I saw a women in the crosswalk going north she was about three car lengths in front of me, as she continued across the street she was struck by a silver pickup truck. I immediately stopped and ran towards her. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen someone hit by a vehicle, the impact throws them through the air like a doll. When I approached she was bleeding from her head, I looked up and saw the driver of the pickup truck getting out, his gate seemed very unsteady. He said as he slurred his words “Hey man, I’m goanna put her in the back of my truck.” I said the fuck you are you’re not going to touch her. My girl friend grabbed a blanket I had in the trunk and we placed it under her head. The drunk guy was approaching us, and I was concerned he and his girlfriend would attempt to move her. Luckily a UCLA doctor road by on his bike and offered aid. The drunk then got in his truck and drove away but not before I got his license plate.

I never found out anything about her recovery, but I did find out the driver was the son of a famous car dealer, and the he was out on bail for another DUI.  



The next involves an arsonist.

It was a Saturday night in Queens New York. I picked up my girlfriend at her home to go out dancing, her mother was home to greet me but before we left, her mother started talking about marriage. I was a bit confused, she was only a friend, not what I would call a “girlfriend”.

We squirmed our way out the door and walked a few blocks to the Queens Garden where we would have a few beers and dance. As the night ended, I walked her home and dropped her off safely at her door. I started walking back to towards Jamaica Avenue to catch a bus to the train station about three miles away, all of a sudden, I noticed this guy dousing some liquid on a house, it seemed very odd, then he threw a lighted match and set the house on fire! I yelled at him and said, “What the hell are you doing?”, he didn’t answer me and tried to walk away but I blocked his path. A police car suddenly appeared and plain clothes officer came up to me and I told him this dude just set that home on fire. He was a white male about 6’2”, thin with black hair. He was promptly handcuffed and placed in the police car. The officer asked if I would mind going to the police station to make a statement, I said sure.

When we got to the police station the lieutenant sat me down next to his 1950’s style wooden desk, one thing I noticed immediately was that there was a wire basket on the adjacent desk and it was filled with half full of glass flasks of alcohol, apparently from the arriving “guests”. The arsonist was asked some questions, and I about fell of the chair when the lieutenant when he asks him what is your occupation? He replied “fireman”, both the lieutenant and I couldn’t help but burst of laughing. The next thing the guy said was “What did you do with my wallet, I hade a lot of money, did you steal it? The lieutenant’s mood changed and warned the prisoner, who was in a metal cage, he better be carful what he is saying. The guy then started to get very loud accusing the lieutenant that he stole his money. The lieutenant was short for a cop, only 5’8”. He told the guy to be quiet, but he persisted. The lieutenant took out his revolver from his shoulder harness and laid it on the table, he also took off his badge. He opened the cage and stepped inside, he grabbed the guy by his hand and bent his fingers in a funny way the guy screamed to holy hell and after he had enough he said “Ok, Ok, OK…” and that was the end of that.

The next day we went to court in Forest Hills, and again when the judge asked him what he did for work he replied, “I’m a fireman”, which he was not.

We sat there in the court room as the judge ordered him to undergo a psychiatric examination. The lieutenant turned to me to me and said “I hate being a cop I suspect everyone, even suspect my brother and the people close to me.

I no longer heard anything about the case, but the image of that wire basket filled with booze, and how the lieutenant tortured the arsonist with out leaving a mark on his body will forever be with me.

PS

The arsonist set four other fires that night before he was stopped, and the people who I witnessed him setting the house on fire were very old and it took about five minutes banging on the door before they were aroused and came to the door.