witness

Thursday night I went out for drinks for work. Had a few snazzy Vodka Limonatas at the Del Rey, went to walk back to the garage and witnessed a hit and run accident. My coworker Molly actually heard the hit - I was pulling on my coat and exited the bar a few seconds later to hear her yelling "Call 911. Call 911! He was hit!"

Cut to - me looking across the street and seeing a man huddled underneath a parked car, very much like a homeless man seeking shelter from the cold. Molly was trying to contact 911 on her cell phone; I ran into the bar to have the bartender call 911. Then Molly and I made it across the street to check on the man. He was bloody and knocked out cold. After a couple minutes, he finally came to - He didn't speak a word of English and he was trying to sit up, definitely in a state of shock. There were two men with him, shouting at him in Spanish - "Juan! Juan!" - pulling on his coat to get him up.

A bicycle cop was the first official on the scene and kept the two friends back. (They ended up slinking off with their friend's coat after telling the officer Juan's full name.) After about 10 minutes, two ambulances arrived and started providing care. Juan's right side looked strangely limp - You could tell his leg was broken right away. The arm needed to be tested by the paramedics, which caused Juan to scream out in agony. That's when I went a little queasy. (Then, and the following morning when I was getting ready for work, I found a bloody patch of something on my bag. The man took care of that for me.)

Juan needed to be taken to the hospital of course, but the paramedics predicted he would make a full recovery. The car that hit him was never located as far as I know. Nobody at the scene got a license plate number. Everyone heard the hit and saw Juan roll about 25 ft, but no one remembered the car. There was this one guy who came up after the ambulances arrived and said "I saw the whole thing," but I don't know if I believed him.