About 1:00 am, I received a call from
the Maine State Police requesting me to respond to
an accident. It was December, and the snow had changed
over to rain. It was POURING!
I arrived at the scene and found the vehicle to be
in the middle of the road. It had hit several trees
at beside a local lake where the water is less than
10 feet from the side of the road. There is no driver
or passenger - they are missing. There is, however,
blood on both airbags and as you can see by the pictures,
the vehicle is so badly damaged it looks as if there
could not be survivors. Also of note is the empty
24-pack of beer as shown in the pics as well.
The vehicle was impounded as the police thought there
was a possibility that the driver could have been
ejected into the lake and there was to be a dive team
dispatched at first light. The lake was frozen, but
open near the accident scene, so this was a distinct
possibility.
We loaded the vehicle on, all the time again noting
that it is POURING copious amounts of rain! I believe
I gained about 50 lbs of water in my wet clothing!
My boots even had water in them!
It turned out that the two people in the vehicle
had walked away from the accident after the passenger
had pulled the driver from the driver's seat as she
was pinned in (as you will note in pictures, the dashboard
was literally in the driver's seat). They walked roughly
a mile away to a major route, said they tried to flag
down a ride, but nobody would stop for them. So they
broke into a garage and spent the night in the garage,
then took the garage owner's vehicle to the store
and called for an ambulance for the passenger, who
had a punctured lung and broken ribs, among other
things. The driver had a scratch on her leg and ripped
her pants from when the passenger pulled her out.
Subsequently, the police removed (cut out) the tops
of the airbags for DNA testing to determine who was
driving the vehicle.
The driver/owner of the vehicle contacted us several
times asking what the bill was of this 4-year-old
vehicle, lienholder was contacted, etc. The driver
continually stated she would be in to pay the bill
and determine what to do with this UNINSURED vehicle.
Lienholder did not respond until forced and eventually
released clear title to us, so now we are proud owners
of a virtually useless crush vehicle and I can still
feel to this day how WET I WAS!!
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