Why it's best to obey all traffic laws

So I'm sitting at a red light yesterday on my way home from buying Ace or Gary some bloodworms (I had two newts, named Ace and Gary, but one died and I'm not quite sure which as they all look the same. Thus the remaining one's name is "Ace or Gary") and happily minding my own business waiting for the light to turn green.

There's an older, hispanic gentlemen in the crosswalk in front of me making his way from one corner to the next.

Well, apparently the fellow in the late 60's model BMW 2002 coming up to the intersection in the lane to my left didn't much feel the red light applied to him and decided he was going to go right through it.

And... well... you guessed it.

BLAMMO!

He nails the poor pedestrian, who goes flying through the air, flipping over, limbs flailing, a shoe and baseball cap soaring off in different directions, and comes crashing down smack dab on to his head.

"Well... holy shit!" I say to myself. I immediately look at the BMW, who doesn't appear to be stopping or have any intention to. So I get the first 4 characters of his license plate before he's sped off and I'm not able to read anymore.

I jump out of my Jeep and run up to the man hit, who is now all twisted and contorted on the ground and writhing in pain, blood all over the darn place with more and more flowing out by the second.

I place my hands on his head, keeping it imobilized and stable when a guy who was in the car next to me at the intersection calls out "Is he OK?!"

"I dunno!" I say back to the guy, who I then notice is an undercover police officer in an unmarked car.

"I'll take care of him! The driver's running!"

You can tell the police officer wanted to go after the hit and run driver, who'd sped off to the next block and turned off on to another street. Once he figured I looked like I knew what I was doing, he jumped in to his car, flipped his sirens and lights on and sped off after the driver.

Immediately another guy runs up to me carrying an EMT medical bag.

"I'm an EMT. I saw it all. Keep holding on to his head." he says as he begins pulling out gauze and bandages and tape and scissors and all sortsa nifty stuff from his bag.

Then a woman runs up. "I'm a nurse. I can help." and she has some foamy block looking thing that she puts around the guys head and takes over holding on to his head while I whip out the cellphone and call 911.

Now, thankfully the undercover cop who went chasing after the driver most likely immediately called the accident in because I got a busy signal when I called 911. 3 times!!!

And thankfully again, another guy runs up and says "911 is busy!"
And I'm all "I know!" and he's all "It's ok. I have a direct line to Long Beach PD. I'm off duty LAPD". Turns out he was the nurse lady's boyfriend and was with her in her car.

So while he talks to the police dispatch I go back to the guy on the ground. The nurse has his head stabilized in this foamy thing and asks me to hold on to it and keep it firm so she can help the EMT bandage up the guy.

He's bleeding from everywhere imaginable, his head mostly. And his arm is quite messed up as well. And he's crying and screaming in Spanish so being the only Spanish speaker there I start talking to him and trying to calm him down. Ask him if he has any medical conditions or anything the nurse and EMT should know about. He starts to calm down a bit.

Ambulance, firetruck and squadcars show up within a couple minutes. The paramedics take over stabilizing the guy's head and let me let go. Then they give me some goopy stuff to wash the blood of my hands while I'm thinking "Ugh... I totally wore a new nice shirt today too and it's gonna have blood all over it".

The cops that show up inform us that the undercover officer caught up to the driver a few blocks away and they have him detained. So they take a statement from me then ask if I'd be so kind as to go to where they'd pulled over the driver to identify and confirm it was the same guy that hit the pedestrian.

So I drive over to where they tell me and sure enough it was him.

1968-1970 BMW 2002, faded red, visible primer on the front and rear. Even missing the passenger side mirror that had flown off and landed in the middle of the street when he hit the poor pedestrian. Same first 4 license plate characters. Same scraggly lookin' driver.

"What?! I hit somebody? I had no idea!" he's saying.

C'mon now. Can anyone be that unaware?! Ya gotta at least have heard or felt something when you sent a grown man flying 15 ft through the air and you got blood down your passenger side and your mirror got knocked off and you went racing off fullspeed to get away. PFFT!

Aaaanyways the old guy that got hit seemed alright when he was taken away in the ambulance and was coherent, relaxed and even joking around with the paramedics a little. So he'll probably do ok... here's hoping he has insurance! Because the driver didn't look like he had it, judging by his car and his eagerness to flee the accident.

And the cop said I was the best witness they'd taken statements from (best as in most confident and thorough in information provided, not best as in it's some kinda contest) and so I can expect to be witness in court unless the guy pleads mea culpa and realizes he ain't gettin' away with it.

But aaaaaaaanyways.

Lucky for the old guy crossin' the street there was an EMT, nurse, and off duty cop all right there to help him out after he got hit.

And unlucky for the driver he decided to run a red light, bowl over a pedestrian, and try and get da fuck out all the while an undercover cop is sittin' right there.

BTW, I didn't get any blood on my shirt. So whee.