An acquaintance and I were chatting the other day when he suddenly said: "I have a confession to make."

He grinned, but it was an embarrassed smile.

"You remember the guy you wrote about a few years ago whose ladder flew out of his truck on the freeway?"

He pointed to his pickup. "That's the truck," he said. "I'm the guy. Don't put my name in the paper."

I looked up the column from seven years ago, and, whoa, I see why he doesn't want his name in the paper.

It happened on the Marconi curve of the Capital City Freeway. The aluminum ladder skidded and spun to a stop in the fast lane.

The driver behind the pickup had noticed that the ladder wasn't tied down, and backed off, just in case, when suddenly, he said, "up popped the devil!"

He hit the brakes, his bumper over the ladder, then jumped out of his car and dragged the ladder into the center median. He could hear brakes screeching and cars skidding behind him.

The pickup didn't stop.

(Getting out of your car on the freeway, by the way? A no-no, CHP says. Call 911. It's OK in emergencies with a hand-held phone.)

The pickup driver filled in the story: He had been helping a friend fix up her house. The ladder was too long to lie flat in his truck bed, so he angled it up on the tailgate. Secure enough, he thought. He headed home.

On the way, a scowling driver pulled alongside, and gave him the finger. That's when he looked back and saw the ladder was no longer there. It must have caught air on the Marconi curve like a plane wing, he figures.

He says he thought about exiting the freeway and heading back the other direction to look for the ladder and maybe get it out of the way. But, frankly, the other part of his brain, the part that focuses on self-preservation, won out.

He just kept going.

Police say he should have called them. Luckily, no one crashed. But Ladder Guy says he feels guilt, years later. That, and another feeling: "I feel stupid. I should have tied it down."

Tragedy foreshadowed

It's been a week since 16-year-old Michelle Murigi was struck and killed walking across Fruitridge Road. She was headed home after serving as a volunteer mentor at the grammar school next to West Campus High.

It turns out, Murigi had expressed safety worries just days earlier in a student survey sponsored by People Reaching Out. One question was, "Is it easy to walk and cross the street?" Murigi wrote, "not easy, almost caught in accidents."

Heartsick officials with People Reaching Out and WALKSacramento told us about Murigi's comment. They'll be pushing for more pedestrian safety around schools. Murigi is gone, but her voice, they say, needs to be heard.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.

• Read more articles by Tony Bizjak