Snoop Drive was four lanes and ran straight as an arrow. As soon as they were out of the garage, Rye detected the spinning lights of the black and white that had called in the accident.
“What are we looking at?” he said.
Claire turned to the second page of her clipboard. “Single vehicle and pedestrian.”
“Better alert the hospital,”
She unclipped the microphone and punched in dispatch at Medford General.
“This is Mad Dash responding to a 1086, ETA five minutes. Mad Dash, out.”
She snapped the microphone back on the dash just as Rye brought the ambulance up next to the police car. They exited the ambulance at almost the same time. Rye grabbed the jump kit and headed for the car; Claire went in search of the officer.
“Over here.”
Her head snapped around scanning the darkness for the source of the voice and spotted a flashlight waving in the air.
Allen Steins was kneeling over the writhing body of a young man obviously in pain.
“Hold on, Ben,” Steins said to him, “this is an EMT.” He stood as Claire ran up. “Bad leg break, hope you’ve got some really strong pain killer.”
“Thanks, Allen, give me a hand with the light.”
The officer stepped out of the way holding his flashlight high enough so that the halo of the powerful beam encircled the prone figure.
Claire knelt down setting the jump kit next to the victim’s injured leg. “Hi Ben, my name’s Claire. Looks like you have some nasty trauma to the knee. I’m going to give you a shot of morphine, any allergies or addictions I should know about?”
Ben was shifting his body from side to side, his face twisted into a grimace of pain. He was braced up on his hands looking straight up. “No, no. How bad’s the break?”
She gave him two shots of morphine. The first was intramuscular so it would trickle in slowly, the second was right into the tissue of the knee, so that she could align it without Ben passing out.
“It’s your knee Ben, hard to tell how bad. Emergency will be able to give you the details. Just try to hold still.”
It was really bad. The kneecap was pulled away from the patellar tendon and the more Claire irrigated the knee the more damage she found. The lateral meniscus, as well as the coruscate ligaments, the two that cross behind the knee, were completely shredded. The car had apparently struck from the front or side. Ben had probably seen the car coming straight at him and was trying to turn away when it hit him.
Claire watched his tension and fidgeting fall away as the morphine kicked in. He laid back with his hands behind his head.
Rye ran up with a backboard and a special knee splint. Stabilizing the leg, they lifted Ben onto the backboard. The officer kept the light just ahead so they could see where they were walking until they got within range of the giant spotlights of the ambulance.
They slid Ben into the back and transferred him to the gurney there. Rye stayed while Claire walked over to the car to check on the driver. Rye said she seemed in shock.
When Claire got to the car, the officer was taking the driver’s statement.
“Candace Dagmar?” Allen Steins said, looking at her driver’s license.
“Yes D-a-g-m-a-r, just like it sounds.”
“And where do you work, ma’am?”
“I’m the manager at Across the Border Tacos. We close at two. I was on my way home.”
Candace Dagmar sat quietly in her Geo Metro with the wool blanket Rye had given her draped around her shoulders. Officer Steins met Claire as she approached the car. “You mind staying with her while I call in her driver’s license?”
“No problem. She drunk?”
“Not at all, why?”
“The victim must have lit up like a Christmas tree when her headlights hit him. He had reflective tops on his socks, toes and heels of his shoes, too. He also wore a reflective vest and hat.”
“She could be in shock, she seems coherent, but doesn’t express any concern for the victim,” Steins said. “I’ll be right back.”
Claire walked to the little car and leaned on the driver’s side door.
“Hello, my name’s Claire, I’m an EMT. Do you hurt anywhere?”
Claire knew that Rye had asked the same question, but if the woman had been in shock she might not remember that he was even present.
“No I’m fine. You know, that runner came out of nowhere, just stepped right in front of me. I hope he has some kind of runner’s insurance, cause it’s going to cost me.
“Look,” she said pointing to the deflated air bag draped over the steering wheel, “the air bag came out.”
Claire winced. If the airbag deployed it indicated that the impact was solid and explained the extreme condition of Ben’s injured knee.
“I’ll tell you one thing, Linda was sure surprised.”
Claire looked around puzzled. “I’m sorry? I didn’t know you had a passenger.”
“Do you see anyone? I was talking to her on my cell.”
“You were talking on the cell phone when you were driving?”
“Have you got a hearing problem? I said I was talking to her on my cell.” Claire was turning away as the woman became more belligerent. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”
She met Officer Steins who was returning to finish the questioning.
“Allen, that woman just told me she was on her cell phone at the time of the accident.”
Steins made a face and picked up his pace. Her license had come back clear, but news of the use of a cell phone complicated her situation.
“Ma’am, were you talking on your cell phone when the accident occurred?” the officer asked.
“You act as though I did something wrong. I hope you gave that runner a ticket, he stepped right out in front of me.”
“Please answer the question, ma’am. Were you on the cell phone when you struck the runner?”
“Well yes, I was instructing my assistant manager in how to close. Oh, I know what you’re thinking, that the phone might have affected my driving. That’s just wrong.”
“How’s that, ma’am?”
“I’m almost always on my cell when I drive. I’ve really perfected the ability to split my attention.”
Candace Dagmar seemed smug, sure that she had vindicated her actions of talking on the phone while driving. Meanwhile Officer Steins was shining the beam through the side window as he listened, until he spotted the clamshell-style cell phone peaking out from under her purse on the passenger seat.
“Ma’am would you please hand me your cell phone.”
“What, why?”
“Just a formality ma’am. It might be needed as evidence. Please hand it to me.”
“I will not! That phone is my link with my workers.”
Officer Steins walked around to the passenger side of the Geo Metro and opened the door. When he reached for the cell phone, the woman quickly reached in an attempt to get it first. The two grabbed the phone at the same time. When Claire saw what was happening she walked around to the driver’s side.
“Ma’am, maybe you should let the officer have the phone.”
“And maybe you should mind your own business.”
Claire’s eyebrows shot up at the rebuke, but she smiled and stepped away from the car. “You’re on your own, Allen. I’m going to go transport Ben, good luck.”
“Claire wait, I need a female presence.” He nodded his head at the woman who was still clinging to the phone. “I can’t call for back-up right now.”
“Right, I’ll just stand over here,” Claire said, stepping back to the front of the car where she could see the tug-of-war clearly through the windshield.
“Ma’am, you are obstructing an officer in the line of duty. If you release the phone now I won’t cite you.”
She tightened her grip. “This is my personal property, you let go.”