Driving a parked car

My friends and I were treated to an entertaining spectacle one night at a bar just outside of town. We were dispatched to go assist with an eighteen wheeler that was stuck in the ditch on a foggy night on a dark stretch of highway. The truck was blocking both lanes of travel and was a serious accident waiting to happen.

We arrived in several patrol units and setup units on both sides of the truck with our overhead lights flashing to warn on coming vehicles of the hazard.

The driveway the truck was trying to exit belonged to a bar that had shut down about an hour earlier. We noticed a car still in the lot of the bar and it appeared that there was someone at the wheel slumped over. Of course we went investigate.

Getting to the car we discovered a woman who appeared to be sleeping in the drivers seat. I'm at the drivers window and a buddy of mine is at the passenger window. I'm shinning my light in the car and start tapping on the window to wake her up. After several moments she awoke abruptly, looked around in a near panic then grabbed hold of the steering wheel of the vehicle and began to try steering the car. She was working the brake and the gas and looking straight ahead trying to turn the wheel.

It was apparent to us that she thought she had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving.

You know, it's pretty damned hard to maintain your professionalism when you are watching this in real time and our laughter erupted.

We wanted to pretend to be running on the side of the car and tap on the window yelling for her to pull over, but good sense and better judgement stopped us.

Someone was called to come bring the extremely intoxicated young woman home.

It's just one of those stories that stays with you.

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