A car rocketed into her lane,
Julie swerved to avoid a collision…
It was downhill from there.
Did the driver stop?
Nope.
Did a witness chase the driver and try to get the driver to return to the scene?
Yes.
The driver’s response?
“I don’t speak English.”
Then he sped off.
by Lonnie Brennan
Julie’s 2008 light blue Hyundai Accent is in junk yard heaven. Julie survived the crash, but the impact with a telephone pole destroyed her car’s frame. The young man who swerved into her path had only four words to shout before disappearing: “I don’t speak English.”
After hundreds of thousands of miles of safe driving, Julie’s car became junk, and her life changed in a flash.
“He swerved and came within a foot it seemed. Just coming right at my car. I couldn’t let him hit me, I instinctively pulled to the right and that was it,” Julie shared.
“Someone called the police; they called a tow truck. There were witnesses and a police report and a woman who saw it all, and the guy behind me who similarly avoided getting hit by this non-English speaking guy who took off,” Julie said.
“That witness, I was told, there were already people with me, so he tried to chase after the guy who caused it. Somehow, he got him at a stop light or something, and told him he had to go back to the scene of the accident,” Julie continued. “That witness came back and told the police that the guy in the Red Honda had funny plates he didn’t recognize at all and couldn’t read, and that the swerver shot off after yelling: I don’t speak English.”
Two witnesses provided testimony of the event, the adjacent driver, and a woman on the street who “saw it all and told the police everything,” Julie said. “I was told I was in shock. I just hit a telephone pole. The police were so nice. I was lucky (physically.)”
Julie used her car extensively, and in fact was in the process of picking up food for a neighbor. She routinely takes elderly from her trailer park neighborhood to doctor’s appointments, food shopping, picks up meals, drives them to vote, helps them as a community resource. Julie has also used her car to distribute this newspaper and share it with new and old friends.
Julie’s friends know how tough it is for an 80-year-old even with a tremendous driving record and limited resources to purchase a vehicle today. They’ve created a www.givesendgo.com/GC1KK site for folks to help Julie, or those who wish to help can also send a check made out to Julianne Cummings, to Boston Broadside, P.O. Box 4200,
Peabody, MA 01961. ♦
www.givesendgo.com/GC1KK
The driving in this state has gotten very much worse in recent years. Road ragers, speeders, tailgaters and other reckless drivers are the norm on Bay State roads. As a driving and auto enthusiast, I don’t like to drive anymore. Driving has especially gotten worse in the Brockton area and surrounding towns. Extremely rare to ever see visible state police traffic enforcement on state roads like rte. 123 or rte. 18. Back in the 1980’s into the early 1990’s Governors King and Dukakis used to have safe driving crusades where the state police and old Metropolitan Police would crack down on speeders and unsafe drivers. The Registry Police also did a good job. Now the only time you hear about the RMV is that they give licenses to illegal aliens and scandals. The terrible drivers in this state today are both citizens and illegals. Our state politicians don’t care.
When the communists in Boston stop prioritizing ILLEGAL ALIENS over citizens, maybe this will stop. We know that when our insurance premiums renew this year, we’re getting a whopper of an increase now that Emperor Healey has handed out drivers licenses to ILLEGAL ALIENS. F this “government”