Tuesday 4 March 2014

Commuting in a police chase

Scene setting: 50 kilometres just clicked over on the bike computer's tacometer and on an upward slope (2-3% according to the computer) and only three kilometres from work. It has been an early morning and a hard ride. Good for the lungs and good for the heart but legs are feeling heavy.
     I ride towards the next roundabout where I will turn left and head up a 3-4% slope to North-East Road and then reach the flat finish to work. A car is parked inconveniently short of the roundabout meaning I will have to go around and then duck back to the left while looking right for cars to give way to. There are almost never cars to give way to in this street. I am still annoyed.
     A 4-wheeled drive passes me and heads to the roundabout and stops next to the parked car. I slow down, noticing enough room to go between but wary that the driver may not have seen me. I sense it would be somewhat uncomfortable to be wedged in between car and SUV on a bicycle.
     I slow but maintain my balance. The driver of the Land Cruiser appears to let me through and I go in between the two vehicles. A person is in the passenger seat of the parked car. More annoying for having decided to park there when he could have stopped earlier. Probably checking his smart phone for unimportant text messages or playing Angry Candy. I get to the roundabout and dont need to give way. I get out of the saddle for the last part of the slope.
     And there is screeching behind me and I turn my head to see the 4WD tearing along the street at my rear. The parked car is pursuing. I stay as far left as I can without getting caught up in the gutter and they pass with plenty of room and I keep cycling and three marked police cars emerge from sidestreets like poltergeists. Another two unmarked cars with attachable lights converge on the 4WD.
     My legs are burning with the effort of trying to get out of there as quickly as possible, but after over fifty ks they dont have in them what they used to. Also after 50 ks my brain doesnt work as it should. I could have stopped and turned around and gone a block further along and stayed well away from this mess.
     But the chase ends and the 4WD pulls over and the police cars stop. I am coming up to them, slowing not to stickybeak but because this is where I turn off and I am looking for traffic. The occupants of the Land Cruiser flee the vehicle and run into the house they parked in front of. Through the front door. Ten (maybe twelve) police exit their vehicles and run to the door and start shouting that they are coming in and my need to accelerate becomes painfully and burningly obvious. Again my legs try but cannot get me out of there fast enough for my liking as I imagine a shoot out and bullets flying and I wonder if my helmet is bullet proof.
     And I still have been unable to find out why a police chase happened a month ago on the streets of Collinswood.

No comments:

Post a Comment