How A Police Pursuit Suspect Nearly Side-Swiped Me After I Missed A Rare Astronomical Event

Well, this was an insane string of circumstances that led to tonight’s events. I guess sometimes life’s just like that.

One Door For Another

What a crazy past hour it’s been. I’ve just returned from spending Mother’s Day with family. I had a nice take-out dinner, though the hay fever has decimated my energy.

As I was slumped on the sofa borderline comatose, one of my family members notified me a Northern Lights phenomenon occurred yesterday on Friday, due to the first strong geomagnetic storm since 2003.

I’m interested in spacey stuff and never knew the light show could even occur here. So it was extremely disappointing to hear I could’ve looked out the window, maybe glimpsed a beautiful phenomenon, and got some good photos too. 

Articles claimed it was possible, but unlikely, that the aurora would reappear on this day. Nevertheless, I figured I’d keep a watchful eye out for some night rainbows. 

We left the house about a quarter past 9. I was seated on the passenger’s side instead of driving due to my fatigue. It took time to get out of the city, and the traffic was heavy on the highway before the Bay Bridge. 

That’s when I heard the short whooping bursts of sirens. I saw blue lights in the rearview mirror. Looks like someone was getting pulled over. Someone must’ve done something wrong, I guess.

About a minute passes, when I hear and feel this odd vibration. It was like the heavy grinding noise a train makes when braking. Not another two seconds pass when a rattling, rumbling van comes barreling past from the left, splitting between our lane and the left one. 

I’ve hit the brakes enough before to know  it was a really close pass. Enough so to warrant an audible reaction from silent old me.

*zoom*

Granted, it wasn’t that fast, but we were in standstill traffic. And I live in the suburbs where the blue sky is the most amazing thing ever. 

Even though it was probably 25 MPH at most, I felt like I was in that World War Z scene where that truck zooms past and rams into all the cars.

My brain didn’t connect the dots until the next second when a police car passed, staying right on the guy’s rear as they weaved through traffic. So I whipped out my camcorder and got a short shot of the pursuit unfolding before me.

The chase went out of sight, but another two police cars whooshed by in the right lane at high speed. It looked like the car took the offramp to a lower street — there were a lot of squad vehicles.

I wish I had the foresight to catch that initial pass on camera too. Would’ve been a one-in-a-lifetime shot. 

Even then, the chances of capturing this so close are crazy. For one thing, if I hadn’t been wiped out and chose to drive, my hands would’ve been occupied. 

We wouldn’t have seen this if we left the house moments earlier or later. The few minutes we spent waiting to say our goodbyes placed us there at just that time. 

Our car was in the exact lane for the fleeing driver to pass inches away. We thought there was an accident ahead, not a chase behind us. 

Maybe they would’ve rammed through if we hadn’t moved right. It looked super close, but no mirrors were taken off, nor was any paint scratched from sideswiping. 

Thankfully, no insurance claims were needed tonight.

The icing on top, apparently a blackout happened at home around this time too. We avoided its effects because we were away and on the road. Maybe it was because of the aurora borealis.

Speaking of that… I didn’t see anything on the rest of the trip back. There was nothing but pitch-black skies. 

So yeah, I missed out on a big astronomical event. But fate found its way, and threw an even greater curveball at me. Life does seem unpredictable at times.

It looks like I still saw some lights tonight. 

They just weren’t quite the lights I expected…