The Race Against Time

Last Thursday January 10th, I missed my bus. Did the bus tracker, it would be 12 minutes. Might as well walk the 15 minutes to the L stop. So I walked. The bus I would have been on, had I waited, arrived at the L stop vicinity a slight half minute after I did via walking. I crossed California Ave and it's good I crossed when I did, because if I had been on that bus, I would have been plucked up over the hood of a tan SUV that squealed around from the northwest intersection of Milwaukee Ave.

The SUV proceeded to push the petal going north. My first thought was, what fuck, you in such a hurry to get through a yellow light you'd run somebody down? A stream of 5-10 Chicago Police squad cars rounded the corner in pursuit, some unmarked cars in there too. Sirens pulsing, sight and sound of chase.

As I entered the L station some State Police cars raced up to join them.

While I waited for the ever delayed Blue Line, a fire engine went up to take care of some sort of business. This was some 5 minutes after the first fury of wheels.

An exciting morning. The news wasn't saying much for awhile into the morning. Though some people on Twitter mentioned Police helicopters in Lakeview, and @Marcusgilmer tweeted a pic of the crash at School and Paulina - http://twitpic.com/bu26dl. That was it! There were the ramifications.

I thought, well that's feasible, from where I saw it at, not too far from that intersection, and  at it's speed, it would crash without a doubt within minutes. Then I read that the pursuit began on the west side of Chicago, around 4300 West Altgelt. Early reports said the SUV was pulled over for a routine traffic violation. Shots were fired at the police then it took off. So, it travailed quite the distance, and amazing work on the part of the driver to have avoided crashing sooner! I wonder if the driver had any prior getaway experience under their belt. I later read that it wasn't a "routine" traffic violation they were fleeing, but an attempted break-in of someone's van. More up-to-date story here, more specific "information" versus my frazzled eye witness glimpse - http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/01/10/roscoe-village-hit-and-run-crash-leaves-one-critically-injured/. 

They didn't want to do time so they fled. Given enough cop cars accumulating in this race, over the course of time, the perpetrators did not beat the buzzer. Time wins every time. 

My morning commutes have been pretty tame since.