As I sat waiting to turn onto Brackett Road just outside the Gorham Country Club after the Gorham Business and Civic Exchange’s annual golf tournament Saturday, a car came flying over the hill to my left, with a Gorham police car trailing it, sirens bleating in rapid fire succession.

Two cars pulled to the side of Brackett Road just in time to avoid the chase. I sat behind the wheel of my car momentarily dazed. The chase passed in front of me so fast it took a a second for me to realize what I had seen.

Once I did, it prompted one of those what-if moments – one of those moments when I think about all the seemingly minor decisions I make that can unalterably change the course of my life. This particular one was stopping, just before leaving the country club, to throw an empty water bottle away. Had I not stopped, I might have turned onto Brackett 30 seconds sooner, leading to a collision and injury or the end of my life.

What angers me, though, is that my innocent decision could have been fatal because of a poor decision made by a drunk driver. As I drove down Brackett Road toward Saco Street, following the path of the chase, I wondered what would prompt someone to make such a dangerous decision.

One news story in recent weeks would seem as though it would serve as a deterrent to those who would choose to run from the police. A police chase in Sebago on June 16 ended when Joshua Plummer, 23, lost control of his truck on a curve and hit a tree, killing himself and his two passengers, 18-year-old Tamera Hearn and 21-year-old Matthew Waugh.

As I continued toward Saco Street, I thought of something Matthew Waugh’s cousin said to a reporter from one of our sister papers, the Lakes Region Suburban Weekly, when asked whether he blamed police for the deaths of the three young people in the truck. “He made the choice. We all made choices,” Cory Waugh said. “He hit the gas when he could have pulled over. I hope people can learn for it.”

Waugh’s hope is the same one many of us in the news business have when we write and edit tragic stories like these – that someone will read it and learn from it. Yet, less than two weeks later, someone was making that same poor decision because of desperation, drunkenness, stupidity or all three and endangering the lives of everyone else on the road.

When I got back to the American Journal offices in Westbrook, I spoke to sports writer Chuck Anschutz, who had played in the golf tournament as well and left shortly before I did. He had driven the opposite direction down Brackett Road and encountered the chase head-on.

He saw the car eluding police cut behind his truck and pass a car in the oncoming lane just before the crest of the hill. The driver couldn’t have known what was on the other side of that hill.

Remarkably, the chase we saw ended safely when a Buxton police officer blocked the road ahead of the chase. Police arrested 22-year-old Travas Collins of Gorham, who is facing a slew of charges (see our front page story) and prison time.

Once again, I am hoping some reader out there will learn from this story. But I’ve learned not to get my hopes up. It will likely be only a matter of time before someone again sees the blue lights in the rearview mirror and decides running is worth the risk.

I don’t have a good answer to this problem. Police certainly need to show some discretion when chasing suspects, especially drunk ones in areas with a lot of traffic. However, if they let a drunk driver go and that person later hits another driver, police have to live with that consequence.

Police should have plenty of training and clear uniform guidelines to help officers deal with chases. Those who choose to run should face harsh prison sentences. Anyone who knows a young driver – most of the drivers eluding police seem to be young – should share one or both of these stories with them.

And, hopefully, one of these drivers considering running from police will decide to think of others before they think of themselves.

Brendan Moran, editor