Fast Lane Straight To Jail

(I’m driving home from work having closed up the late night shift. The roads are quite clear but there is a little traffic. About halfway home while in the inside lane at just about at the speed limit I see, in my rear view mirror, a car coming up in the outside of three lanes at high speed. I quickly guess he plans to cut across all three lanes and weave through traffic and I begin to ease off. This is incredibly lucky because, while he does manage to cross all three lanes… he is sideways by the time he reaches my lane. He impacts the barrier and spins down the road ahead of me. I’m squeezing my brakes for all they have while I drive through a cloud of debris. I manage to stop around a car length away from him, and then I’m out of my car on the phone to the police right away and running to check he is okay. I see him climb out of the car, amazingly in one piece.)

Me: “Are you all right? Do you need an ambulance? I’m calling the police.”

Driver: “No, I’m fine. Don’t call the police.”

Me: “Mate… Look. You’ve left most of your car across two lanes… The police are coming.”

Driver: “No, no. It’s fine. They don’t need to come.”

(I ignore him at this stage and remain on the phone giving details to the dispatch officer. I decide to stay at the scene because my car has working lights to warn other drivers, and because I want to provide a witness statement to police. Shortly after I hang up on the call, he approaches me.)

Driver: “Could you do me a favor?”

Me: “I can try!”

Driver: “Tell them you saw me get cut off.”

(I agree to stop him trying to argue and threaten me, but I plan to tell the police EXACTLY what took place. Fortunately, the police do arrive pretty quickly. They take his statement, and from the looks both officers give as they listen, it’s clear they smell BS. The driver is breathalysed and cleared for drunk driving. One of the officers asks me to walk to my car with him to take my statement. I tell him exactly what took place and include that I was asked to lie. The officer just smiles before saying.)

Officer: “I have been to enough of these to know when someone is lying; you just confirmed exactly what I suspected.”

(He took the rest of my statement and I carried on home. I was so angry with the driver who asked me not to call the police, then asked me to lie, and didn’t seem to realise that he is lucky to be alive and lucky he didn’t kill anyone.)