Flashing Lights

On Wednesday, I was driving home around 11:30PM and a car passed me with their hazard lights on. Clearly going over the speed limit (passing everyone) and continuing along with the hazard lights going.

I was thinking that they should slow down, even though the ice is almost gone, and then I thought that it was odd that someone would be driving along, middle of the night, in very little traffic, with their hazard lights going.

And then I remembered a situation where I was the passenger in just such a vehicle...When I used to do youth ministry, we took the students to a mini-golf place one night. Somehow I got stuck in the third seat at the back of the van for the drive over. While one adult was paying for the whole crew to be able to play, others were trying to get the van unloaded.

A few of the kids were checking out the narrow white fence around the mini-golf property. One girl decided to climb up and take a walk. I was still trapped in the back of the van. No one could get there fast enough. Down she tumbled and broke/compound fractured her arm.

After calling her parents to meet us at ER, the driver, the student, and I all climbed back in to the van to drive to the hospital. The mini-golf facility provided us with a big pack of ice and I got to hold her arm on that ice all the way to the hospital, trying to keep it from jarring anytime a bump or dip came along. Not easy to anticipate those sudden terrain issues when you are not the person watching the road.

At some point we got to an intersection where the light was red and there was no traffic coming. The driver put on the flashers and drove on through. We may have gone through a couple stop lights like that, I can't remember. Rolling stops through some stop signs. Once the hazard lights came on, though, they didn't get turned off until we were at ER.

At one of the lights, a police car saw the stop light maneuver and began following us. I don't remember whether he had his lights on. I'm guessing not. We were within blocks of the hospital by then. When we entered the hospital parking lot, he was kind enough to just get out of his car and observe the crying and controlled rush to ER.

So, I pray the folks I saw on this week were not rushing to Urgent Care or ER. And that if they were, that all is now well.