Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Not as it appeared

Officer Todd Groves emailed me last night, after reading yesterday’s post concerning the young woman in emotional distress. He’s the officer who investigated the crash. Todd tells me that the woman sobbing under the tree was not the driver who struck the pedestrian. She was apparently a witness who saw the crash and stopped at the scene.

He also said he spoke to her about what she has seen, talked to her several additional times, and even offered to arrange for a ride or call over a chaplain because she was so upset. Todd said that after he received an update from the hospital, he went over and told her that the runner was going to be OK, which made her feel much better. She left shortly thereafter.

Just goes to show you that things are not always as they appear.

9 comments:

morose said...

Actually... they rarely are.

Anonymous said...

Kudos to Ofc. Groves! That is what I was wanting to hear had happened eventhough you seemed to imply that the bystanders should have done it.

Steve said...

I don't see how the fact that the young lady wasn't the driver changes anything. I would say that Officer Groves went above and beyond the call of duty on this one.

that's what she said...

Who could resist a hug from Grover?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the guy that sent you the finger-pointing e-mail (and didn't notice the beam in his own eye) really feels like the back end of a horse right now. If not, he should.

Tom Casady said...

Steve-

Agreed. It really doesn't change anything. I still wonder how you could watch someone this upset for 20-30 minutes, feel that you should email the chief of police about your observations, but not feel compelled to offer a shoulder to lean on at the time. I think I know the answer, it's just a little intriguing to me how this intellectual-emotional process works.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the person that wrote the e mail reads this blog. I would guess NOT.

Steve said...

While I would like to think that I would have done differently, I would not be too quick to condemn the actions or motives of the man who sent the email. He obviously cared, which is probably more than some of the other rubberneckers did. Why he sent an email rather than offer some comforting words of his own is something only he knows.

Anonymous said...

Yes every police office I have ever met has a special quality about them, it's compassion. Thank you Ofc. Groves.