Accident Prone - Becoming Human

Limb

The morning was less than ideal and culminated in rather nasty car accident before noon. A fully loaded autonomous semi truck had lost control when a car in front of it braked unexpectedly in order to avoid smashing into the side of a second car driving erratically through a busy intersection. Unable to stop in time the semi truck rear-ended the car and pushed it onto the sidewalk and into the corner of a large brick building. The truck then skidded and tilted onto its side spilling its glass contents all over the road causing other cars behind the truck to slide out of control and slam into one another creating a massive pile-up in the middle of the city.

The fire department was on the scene of the accident within a few minutes, while the location of the accident being in close proximity to the Central Precinct required Connor and Hank's presence. The autonomous truck would also need to be carefully checked over for any sign of malfunction, hacking or sabotage as anything regarding androids, deviancy and autonomy were a part of the two detective's division.

Annoyed and unimpressed with the scene of the accident Hank crossed his arms as he stepped over the shattered bottles of wine that littered the street from curb to curb. The street was soaked a deep burgundy color and smelled of sweetly fermented fruit that was sure to linger for hours courtesy of the truck spilling its load. Eyeing Connor who was standing beside the overturned truck with his L.E.D. glowing yellow Hank waited for the deviant to make his current report to the precinct on the situation.

"Well, Connor." Stepping up onto the sidewalk and away from the spilled alcohol Hank awaited Connor's assessment. "Is the truck at fault or the driver of the first car?"

"Neither." Connor confirmed as he joined Hank on the other side of the street opposite the truck. Wine stained the bottom of his shoes and glass crunched under each step he took as he followed behind his partner. "According to the dash camera footage of the truck, the car in front had swerved to avoid impact with an erratically driving blue car speeding through a red light at the intersection."

"Can you get a make and model of the blue car from the footage?"

"Yes. The camera failed to capture an image of the license plate but the car has been identified. I have already cybernetically issued an A.P.B. for the royal blue 2025 Dodge Pace with the broken front right headlight. It was last seen heading West."

"Good work, kid." Hank turned to look at the firefighters hosing down the street to rid it of the spilled wine and broken glass easily. The surrounding traffic had been barred from using the street until the mess was cleaned up. "Once the street's cleared we can head back to the precinct and file our report. It shouldn't take too-"

Screeching tires filled the air as the blue car that had been identified as the culprit of the pile-up sped down the street and up onto the sidewalk at a frighteningly high speed. The obviously impaired driver swerved dangerously over the mess he had left in his wake as he now barreled dangerously fast toward the first responders at the scene. Before anyone had the chance to react the car was practically on top of the group and showed no sign of slowing down.

Turning to look at the oncoming vehicle Connor ran a preconstruction of the scene and weighed his options regarding the rapidly closing window of time that he had been granted to react: Step aside and Connor had a one-hundred percent chance of survival, while Hank would have only eighteen percent. Push Hank out of the way then the senior detective's chance of survival rocketed up to eighty-four percent while Connor's plummeted to fifty-four percent. If he were to try to cybernetically hack the car to stop the vehicle it would skid to a halt but not before striking down half a dozen firefighters whose odds of survival ranged from as low as twelve percent through seventy-one percent.