The name Los Angeles is Spanish for The Angels. The nick name for Los Angeles is City of Angels. I can tell you right now that there aren't "Angels" walking around here in Los Angeles. And if the angels are up high looking down, I wonder what the hell are they're thinking.
There is a video of a 72 year old man who got hit by a car earlier this week being shown on television. The news announcer said that their was outrage about the video because it shows the man getting hit by the car and then several vehicles driving around his body in the street. It also shows several people standing on the sidewalk just looking. Absolutely no one went up to the man who was lying in the middle of the street after being hit by the car. This is life in Los Angeles.
About 15 years ago I was driving home on a Thursday afternoon. I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was approximately 3:15pm. I was on Beverly Glen Blvd. heading north. I was about the 5th car in the turning lane to head west on Sunset Blvd. As I sat and waiting for the light to change I heard a thump noise and I thought to myself "Someone must have dropped something off of the back of a truck." The light changed and the cars in front of me began to go round something in the street. I thought to myself, "I was right, someone did drop something off of the back of a truck." But I was wrong. I was shocked to see a woman laying in the middle of the street and everyone was driving around her like she wasn't even there. I stopped my car right in front of her and got out of my car.
I can tell you, time stopped in my world. I had no place to go and nothing to do. I ran up to her and her eyes were open but they seem to be fixed on the curb. I began talking to her telling her that she would be okay, she wasn't alone and I was going to get help. I knew she heard me because her bottom lip started to quiver. She had blood coming from her ear and nose.
This was before I had a cell phone. The traffic heading east on Sunset Blvd. was stopped. A guy in a white convertible car told me that he had called 911 on his cell phone. I thanked him. I saw this red car stopped at the light and I have no idea how I knew he had a blanket in the back of his car. I asked him, "Can I have the blanket in the back of your car? You will never see it again." He said, "Sure." and gave me the blanket. I don't know a whole hell of a lot about first aide but I did know this woman was probably going into shock. I took the blanket and put it on her.
An ambulance did arrive and so did the police. The police were taking down my information and a man came up and said that he had seen what had happened. He said that she was crossing the street and a white pickup truck (a gardener's truck) came out of Bel Air Estates and hit her and then rolled over her and just kept going. He said he pulled out of traffic and made a u-turn and followed them. He gave the police the address of where the truck was.
I personally don't think that she survived. She looked to be in her 50's maybe early 60's.
The thing that I have thought about most of all were the minutes from the time I heard the thump, that was when she was hit... and the time she heard my voice. It must have seemed like an eternity to her. Lying there in the street just listening to car, after car, after car going past her, like she didn't even exist.
In a future post I will write about the time I found a dead man on Wilshire Blvd. at 3:15pm on a Thursday.
The picture is of a beautiful rainbow.
Ciao
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