Was sitting in the left turn lane of a 4 lane road this evening. All 3 boys in the back of the 328 as we were heading for #1 son’s soccer practice. Wife is out of town.
Way behind me I saw blue police lights flash briefly. Easy to see because there was no one behind me. In my rear view mirror I could see a Chevy Avalanche coming towards me at a high rate of speed. It struck me that he needed to slow down.
Instead of slowing the Avalanche started swerving from the far right lane to my center turn lane. His rear end was slipping out at ~80mph and he was losing it. I spent a long second thinking “holy shit!”.
All I had time to do was take my foot off of the brake. I wanted to be able to roll forward with the impact.
He managed to hold it together enough to miss me and the boys by a whisker, if at a 20deg angle, and shot by on my left. He was against oncoming traffic now, but it was clear because they were stopped by the red light a half dozen cars in front of me. He slowed a bit at the red, saw a gap in cross traffic and bolted thru the gap.
The temptation to launch after the SOB was overwhelming. I don’t know what the suspension the PO put in the 328, but it’s one low and taut turning and burning machine. I figured that I could catch up to him and Miata-punt him into a wall in seconds, 1500lb disadvantage not withstanding.
But the kids were with me, and even if they weren’t, the cops would be unimpressed with any vigilante foolishness I might imagine.
2 police cars then raced up behind me and stood on their brakes as they entered traffic. They ended up right beside me. They opened windows and exchanged annoyed looks.
I opened my passenger window and said helpfully “hey guys, he went thataway, go get him”. They say said, with no excitement in their voice “nah, we can’t. He hasn’t committed a felony”.
“Bummer”, I said.
After soccer practice I took the kids to a local Mexican restaurant. The cops were there. They said that they got the guy.