By JJ Bowman
Associate Editor
A wake up call from Public Safety at 4 a.m. might be the least desirable phone call a Pepperdine student can receive. Senior Jessica Hooten heard such a call Saturday morning, and although the news was bad for her, it was even worse for DPS.
Hooten said that after four phone calls and one urgent message on the answering machine in her Honors Apartment room, she finally came down to the front of her building to learn that a DPS officer had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel and struck her vehicle.
According to Assistant Director of Public Safety David Stephens, a full-time officer traveling toward Drescher Campus on Via Pacifica veered a DPS Ford Crown Victoria to the right side of the road and struck Hooten’s car, which then lurched forward and struck another parked vehicle. DPS has a policy not to reveal the names of officers and students involved in accidents.
It was the fifth time Hooten had been involved in an automobile accident since June of 2002, although she said she was at fault in none of the accidents.
“All I kept thinking is ‘why me?’” she said.
Hooten had been sick the day before, and only hours before, battled Public Safety over a parking ticket she said she did not deserve. But when she went outside she met a DPS officer under much different circumstances. Although the officer who struck her vehicle was not on the scene, another officer waited to show her the damage. Hooten said she was too distressed to go over the accident, so she called her mother and let her speak with the officer over the phone.
Hooten just stared at the damage.
“I sat on the curb, next to the trunk of my car, which had been knocked off somehow,” she said.
The rear bumper on her 1995 Mazda Millenia had been ripped off, and Hooten said she could also see serious damage to her rear axle.
Hooten then said she again spoke to her mother, who consoled her and reminded her that no one suffered injuries, and that “God is going to take care of everything — it’s just a car.”
The Crown Victoria cruiser suffered about $3,000 to $4,000 in damage, Stephens said. The third car suffered minor bumper damage. DPS officers left a note on the car for the owner to contact Public Safety, but thus far, no one has come forward.
Hooten said she spoke with Pepperdine University Insurance and Risk Management Department Tuesday about the accident, and although she feels confident she will be compensated for the crash, she has not yet received an estimate for the damage, nor has she seen the car since Malibu Towing moved it off campus.
Just 12 hours before the accident, Hooten had what she thought would be her worst DPS experience for the day. An officer ticketed Hooten for parking in a fire lane as she carried a large picture frame to her dorm room. Hooten said the officer watched her get out of the car and carry the frame.
“He could have helped me if he wanted to,” she said. Or he could have told her to move the car before she left it, she continued.
“Public Safety is supposed to be service oriented,” she said. “And I think sometimes they miss that.”
Hooten does not, however, harbor bad feelings toward Public Safety regarding the crash.
“I don’t feel any animosity toward them,” she said. “Accidents happen.”
Stephens would not comment on the status of the driver when he crashed into Hooten’s car. DPS is investigating the case, Stephens said.
Public Safety did not administer any breath or blood tests to determine if the officer was under the influence, Stephens said.
“If there were any objective signs of this being alcohol related, investigative steps would have been taken,” he said. “We have no reason to believe that there was any alcohol or drug involvement.”
Stephens said it would not be standard operating procedure to automatically test an officer or a student involved in a crash for alcohol. Instead, other objective signs would have to be present, such as the smell of alcohol on the person responsible, lack of balance or other evidence of drugs or alcohol involvement.
The officer has since returned to work, Stephens said. DPS does not release the outcome of any internal investigation, he continued, although the department would notify any student who lodged a complaint against an officer of whether action was taken.
The most recent accident involving Hooten’s Millennia occurred in October of 2002, she said, when her car had been rear-ended in Los Angeles. Two weeks later, on her way to return the rental car she had been given in the interim, another driver smashed into the back of her car at Malibu Canyon Road. This accident, she said, compounded with injuries from the previous one and forced her to receive physical therapy for her neck, back and forearm.
“I never want to drive again, basically,” she said.
September 11, 2003