I run up the hill to find two teenage guys who had run head on to a big oak tree behind my house. Passenger had put his head through the windshield and had a huge gash and was bleeding all over. Driver was hurt, but not badly.
My nieghbor, a woman in her mid forties, was there too trying to make sure they stayed calm. Ha! these guys were so agitated it wasnt funny. Both wanted out of the car.
Then I started realizing something was wrong. I could tell these guys had been drinking and possibly doing some other kind of drugs. Car looked stolen. Passenger clearly had life threatening injuries he wasnt completely with it. But he was cranked up on something.
So we are trying to keep the passenger calm and he is trying to get out of the car. Now this guy is completely covered in blood is spitting blood etc. His buddy who was driving come around and the passenger says run. So then all of a sudden the driver runs down the mountain from my house. I live on the border of a large forest preserve. I figured well if he is ok enough to run he should be ok. I didnt see any obvious signs of injuries on him so we stay with the injured passenger.
Then as bonny doon rescue with sirens approaches the passenger gets out of the car and starts running down the mountain. Now it gets interesting! My 47 year old nieghbor who is all of 5'6" and 125 lbs starts running after this guy! Holy crap! So I hesitated one second and then before I knew it I was running a full speed chasing after these two about 10 yards behind them. Mountain at my house drops from 1200 ft to sea level in about 3 miles so steep terrain with lots of underbrush. I'm thinking ok this is going to be a short chase. This kid had to be on crack - he is running fast and keeps heading down the mountain with my neighbor and then me in close pursuit. SHe's yelling come back come back we want to help you! Anyone who has seen me will probably delight in what I must have looked like in full sprint behind these two.
So finally this 15 year old kid collapses in thick thorny underbrush easily a 1/4 mile from where we started the chase and we help him out. Ouch!!! Now I'm getting pissed. He is billigerant, but we can see he is having a hard time maintaining consciousness. Finally we convince him that he needs medical help and he now is doing all he can keep it together. and collapses. So I run all the way up the hill to get help. We finally get this guy back to the crash scene. And they get him on a helicopter to a hospital - he was wavering between being conscious. Not so not sure how he is now. I felt for this kid - looked like he was in a tough spot and had made some bad decisions. He broke down a couple times as we helped him back.
So driver is still out there - they had search helicopter out looking for him until the fog rolled in a couple minutes ago. He's probably not a happy camper as it looks like they hit the tree doing about 40 mph with no brakes.
Nothing like a typical Saturday morning in the Santa Cruz mountains
I think I'm going to have a beer!
