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Wednesday, February 16, 2005
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MAYBE IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY
In his HBO special Bring the Pain, Chris Rock gets into a hilarious routine about how, if he wasn't famous, OJ Simpson wouldn't still have the world kissing his ass. Rock suggested that if he were, say a bus driver, that wouldn't even be called "OJ." He's be known as "Orenthal, the bus driving murderer."
What Chris and I didn't know is that description is already taken. As it happens, the Juice's brother is a bus driver who just killed his first woman this past Monday.
The driver of a San Francisco airport shuttle bus -- O.J. Simpson's brother -- may have fallen asleep at the wheel before the vehicle crashed Friday on Interstate 280, killing a passenger, authorities said Monday.
Melvin Leon Simpson, 58, of San Mateo, was at the end of his shift and was suffering flu-like symptoms when his 21-seat SFO Airporter shuttle bus struck a guard rail and veered into a concrete support column near Mariposa Street, killing 57-year-old Lynne de Matties of Phoenix, authorities said.
De Matties, who was arriving in San Francisco for a Valentine's weekend vacation, was thrown from the van and died instantly. Six people were injured, including de Matties' husband and a tourist from New York who lost two fingers in the crash.
So, Melvin killed a woman, but no waiter. OJ still wins.
However, Melvin gets points for using his brother's legal strategy of lying to police.
Simpson first told investigators that the dead woman was a homeless person who had wandered onto the freeway. But later, when he realized a passenger was a victim, Simpson said he had swerved to avoid a car that cut in front of him.
It's too bad that Melvin didn't try to pin the accident on Mark Furhman. It worked surprisingly well for his brother.
Passengers interviewed by California Highway Patrol investigators say they never saw a woman or a car that swerved in front of the bus. "They just said they felt the van move to the right, then drift off to the left,'' said CHP Officer Shawn Chase.
"No one says they saw a car, so the likelihood of him dozing off is probably pretty good," Chase said. He added, however, that no passenger had seen Simpson asleep. "You can't say for sure,'' he said.
Did he have a complete set of gloves with him? I know it isn't really relevant to this case, but I'm really, really curious.
Chase said Simpson had not been feeling well Friday and had considered not coming into work. He had been driving since 3 a.m. that day, and the accident happened at 11 a.m.
Simpson provided a sample of his blood to investigators to determine whether alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash, Chase said.
"We asked him for a voluntary sample, and he gave it,'' Chase said. "We don't suspect there to be anything in it.''
It's really too bad the AC Cowling wasn't there driving for Melvin. Things tend to turn out well with AC at the wheel.
In farness, I've spent my fair share of time at San Fransisco International and a bigger pain in the ass airport is hard to come by. It's really, really easy to have an accident driving through there. In fact, I was nearly in one and could very well have lost two fingers as a consequence. To the one person who gets the joke there, I know that you're aughing really hard right now. To the rest of you, I apologize.
It would be kind of neat if the shipped everybody from OJ's trial upstate to preside over the matter of Melvin, though. I'm sure everybody is like me and misses seeing Marcia Clark's nervous breakdowns manifest themselves in her hairstyle and the witty slogans of Mr. Johnny.
Sorry, I just get all nostalgic for the good old days.
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