Don't know why I'm posting this, but nobody else is awake to let me let it out...
At around 11:30 I was with the girlfriend at Marciel Gate on the top of the Redwood climb, coming from the Castro Valley direction. We were celebrating an early Valentine's Day and lookin' at the stars, when I realized that it was 11:30 and my mom would be pissed (very strict adherence to the California Vehicle Code's curfew for minors with licenses), so we jump in the car and start heading back down Redwood to get to San Leandro.
About half a mile from Marciel Gate, there's a Mercedes sedan on its side on my shoulder of the road - thankfully not on the side of the road by the reservoir - and the lights are still on.
I've taken first responder classes with brothers, who are both certified EBRPD lifeguards, so my first instinct after pulling over and putting on the emergency blinkers and calling 911 was to get out of the car and see if anyone is stuck inside.
The crash site looks weird - no shattered glass besides the window on the ground, windshield in tact, no skid marks on the road, and weirdest of all the car is facing towards us...as if whoever drove it was going up hill. The hood was still warm.
Peer inside the windshield - nobody is in the car. Keys in ignition, some blood on the steering wheel and seat, but no trail outside the car.
I get back in my car to a very freaked out girlfriend, and drive down the road a mile and up the road a mile from the site. Nobody is walking towards the golf course, nobody is walking toward or past Marciel Gate. We get back to the overturned car and the lights are still on...the battery isn't dead yet. It's 30minutes later and the cops aren't even there.
Ten more minutes and a slew of vehicles from the CHP arrive. They ask us a normal series of questions and send us on our way.
I'm FREAKED out. I'm 17. This happened on a road where I regularly ride my bike, where cars and motorcycles regularly speed through corners, and I just have no idea. I have no idea where the driver went and that's what scares me the most. The lights stayed on throughout the ordeal - it obviously happened just minutes prior to our departure down the road.
Sorry for the incoherent babble, and taking up precious bytes of the interwebz. I just needed to kind of materialize all of what just happened in my head.
Probably the most scared I've ever been.
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