Last Wednesday night, while I was driving through the rain to the Pat McCurdy show, I passed the scene of an accident.

I was a few blocks from my apartment and turned onto a Sherman, where I noticed several cars and a bus pulled over to the other side of the street. They looked parked, except that the headlights were on. I wondered if an emergency vehicle had just passed, since it looked so odd. I drove past rather slowly, since I could see people standing around and I had no idea what was going on. The last thing I wanted to do was hit someone in the dark and the rain.

Lying in the street between the last of the cars and the bus was a blonde woman. Standing around her were several people. It didn't look good. By the time I had gone a few more blocks I could begin to hear the sirens. The whole thing bothered me, and I made sure to drive slowly and carefully the rest of the way.

It wan't until Sunday that I heard what had happened. A pedestrian named Susan Quigley was struck by a fast moving vehicle. The driver did not stop. Susan died in the hospital the next day. She was a Lutheran minister, a wife, and a mother. She was 47 ears old.

The driver of the car had made a right turn off of a side street "at a high rate of speed" and struck her almost immediately upon entering Sherman, but did not bother to stop. It was up to other drivers to pull over in an attempt to give aid. The car is believed to be a late model Toyota, possibly a Camry or Avalon four-door in maroon or red. The car is also missing a driver's side mirror, which was left at the scene, and may have other body damage as well.

While I can imagine that hitting a pedestrian with your car could cause shock and confusion, I have a very hard time getting my head around the notion of not stopping. The driver is an asshole of the highest degree. I guess they may have been drunk. I really hope they are caught.

The side street the driver turned out from was one block from the side street I always turn out from. If I had left my house a few minutes earlier, I might have been a witness to the accident itself, and I thank God that I wasn't. The aftermath itself is burned into my brain. If I had actually seen her be hit, I doubt I could sleep.

As it is, I am keeping my eyes open for a car that matches the description. Strangely enough, there was another, non-fatal, hit-and-run in the neighborhood the week before. I also remember one day in late summer, seeing a sports car jetting down a quiet 25 mph street a block from my home at what had to be at least 50mph, if not more. It was fast enough to shock me, and too fast for my to get a license plate number. As a frequent pedestrian, I take this personally. This is also a neighborhood full of children. What is wrong with people that they tear through residential neighborhoods as if they were on the beltline? And what is wrong with people that they refuse to take responsibility for the injuries their stupid actions have caused people?

This is going to stick with me for quite a while.