If you hit and run, don't forget your license plate

Driving along Riverside last night, a car weaving through traffic sped by at a high speed. Westbound, it crossed Coldwater Cyn. (remember last week's incident off Coldwater?) and went out of control, spun, careened onto the curb and slammed into a parked car, pushing it 25 feet into a telephone pole. Now facing East due to the spin, the car put the pedal to the medal and proceeded to hit the curb on the other side of the street in front of Mazzarino's Italian Restaurant. Once straightened out, it ran a red, making a turn onto Coldwater and hightailed it onto the 101 -- endangering many more lives.

If you know anything about Coldwater Cyn. and this part of the Valley in particular, there are lots of dips in the roads at intersections. To travel at high speed over a dip will do nothing but give you the above experience, without the running away part.

If you do run, probably best to pick up your license plate before you go. The bumper in the above picture is not of the parked car that was hit, but of the drunk driver who fled (side note: the author of this article once got hit as a pedestrian in a hit and run and noted the license plate).

911 was called from a cellphone and lo and behold, the CHP didn't pick up until 4 minutes later. Wait? As of last week, cellphone calls to 911 are supposed to go directly to the LAPD. Guess that announcement came too soon.

In the end, the parked car at the telephone pole was towed back to its spot. The owner never came out so someone must have been a bit surprised and befuddled when they went to drive their car this morning.