My brother and I were on our way home from California, and not too far from Phoenix, Arizona. Suddenly, a cloud of dust filled the air around us, and pieces of tire flew at us. Not good to see when there’s a semi-trailer truck just in front of you.

After the dust cleared, the truck in front of us seemed to be fine. Coincidentally, there was an old, dusty-covered car sitting off to the side, upside-down. Only…the tires were spinning. The dust was from the car going off the road, then it flipped over! My brother stopped so we could see if anyone was hurt.

The driver pulled himself out from the passenger side down. My brother asked if the guy was all right, and he said “yeah.” My brother asked if there was anyone else in the car, and the guy said “yeah.”

By now, others had stopped to see what’s wrong. One of them heard my brother’s questioning, then asked the driver in Spanish if anyone else was in the car. The driver answered back in Spanish that there was no one else in the car.

While waiting for the police to arrive, my brother and I met some interesting people who stopped to help out. I wish I took a photo of the interesting-looking Indian man.

At some point the man ran off. A van stopped by and the man climbed into it, and they drove off.

A fire truck showed up, and my brother and I were asked to stop at the next rest area to identify if a caught guy was the driver. We drove to the rest area, and another guy was sitting on the curb in handcuffs. I was afraid that they got the wrong guy, but this person was arrested for something else.

The drunk driver was in the back of the sheriff’s car (or police car, I don’t recall), and my brother and I gave written testimonies on what happened, from the point of the dust filling the air, to the guy climbing out of his car, to him tossing a half-empty drink bottle into the bushes, to him and others running off.

Alongside not speaking or understanding English, the driver had only a Mexican driver’s license in his wallet.

It seems the case never went to court.