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The author as moving target
So, here I am, driving to the day-job by the usual route and only slightly late. They're working on the bridge over -- is it the Messalonskee there? Whatever. Anyhow, Big Honking Orange Work Truck in my lane at the end of the bridge, attending workmen with shovels. In the other lane, a flagman, with the STOP side of his sign pointing at me. I stop. He sets free the cars waiting to make the turn off of River Road. There are no cars coming down Mayflower Hill. The last car passes, the flagman turns his sign to SLOW, and waves at me to get on with it.
Which I do.
I'm half-way across the bridge in the left lane when I see the white car coming down Mayflower Hill at an approximate speed of Warp Nine. I keep going, thinking the driver will see the frantically gesturing flagman and screech to a stop.
Except the car -- fancy white car -- maybe a brand new Altima? driven by a grey-haired man with a strong nose and a pampered beard, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and a blue tie. How did I get such a good look at him?
BECAUSE HE NEVER STOPPED!
He never even slowed down
I stopped, flicked on the high-beams, leaned on the horn and prepared to meet my Goddess.
At about six inches out from my front bumper, he swerved into the right lane AND KEPT ON GOING up Gilman Street.
May I just say, it's a school day? And that many high school children walk down Gilman Street on their way to Waterville High? Not to mention, yanno, random secretaries who are only slightly late for work trying to survive the trip into the day-job?
Jayzeus Angelica Mondieu. I hope to God you got to wherever you were going without killing anybody, fella. And I hope your car melts into a puddle of useless gum before you can drive it again.
Which I do.
I'm half-way across the bridge in the left lane when I see the white car coming down Mayflower Hill at an approximate speed of Warp Nine. I keep going, thinking the driver will see the frantically gesturing flagman and screech to a stop.
Except the car -- fancy white car -- maybe a brand new Altima? driven by a grey-haired man with a strong nose and a pampered beard, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and a blue tie. How did I get such a good look at him?
BECAUSE HE NEVER STOPPED!
He never even slowed down
I stopped, flicked on the high-beams, leaned on the horn and prepared to meet my Goddess.
At about six inches out from my front bumper, he swerved into the right lane AND KEPT ON GOING up Gilman Street.
May I just say, it's a school day? And that many high school children walk down Gilman Street on their way to Waterville High? Not to mention, yanno, random secretaries who are only slightly late for work trying to survive the trip into the day-job?
Jayzeus Angelica Mondieu. I hope to God you got to wherever you were going without killing anybody, fella. And I hope your car melts into a puddle of useless gum before you can drive it again.
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We may hope that one or the other of the flaggers got a license plate number. They, like school bus drivers, are taught to do that.
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(All except for one local ER nurse, who actually did, one time . . . well, the passenger, anyhow, since the driver never even made it to to the ER. Rattled her a fair amount, it did, even though she never told the driver to get both drunk and stoned and then try driving a new Corvette at well upwards of 100mph down Route 3 north of Clarkesville.)
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Actually that is a pet peeve of mine – I hate it when people talk on the phone and drive. If I see someone do something stupid, I assume the fool is on the phone.
But do not take that to mean I am for any law restricting the use of cell phones.
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Driving While Impaired
We don't know it was a cell phone.
It could be any number of things...well...maybe a handful of things that would distract him for that long, and that consistently.
Driving while impaired or distracted is unsafe, regardless of why.
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(Anonymous) 2009-09-10 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
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(glad you made it out of that alive!)
May he come back in the next life as a cockroach...
(Anonymous) 2009-09-10 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)Glad you're alive and unhurt
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
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People who drive like Hell will only end up getting there faster...
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Hopefully they won't try to re-deliver.
Doc
Congrats on living to see another birthday!
To chime in on the cell phone thing, a recent study (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/hfes/hf/2009/00000051/00000003/art00001) shows that talking on a cell phone (even hands free conversations) is equivalent to an 0.08 or higher blood alcohol level. Texting and doing other "activities" impair driving even more. In the same manor where they started calling them car crashes instead of accidents, to increase awareness, we now point out "drunk drivers" that we see on their cell phones; especially when my niece or nephew are in my car with me.
Of course, being an idiot driver can trump all of the above.
Re: Congrats on living to see another birthday!
Whatever the impairment is. Cellphones are particularly bad, but anything that distracts/impairs you from safe operation of your vehicle is bad too.
The scariest of my near misses and the worst of my actual collisions were caused by the actions of the other parties who were each on cell phones. All the drunk driver incidents were non-injury or hit and run property damage only...mostly late at night running into the bus type of things. No other distractions caused significant accidents.
In my time as a professional driver, one of the most unpredictable hazards was drivers and pedestrians on cellphones. Most other distractions are momentary, where cell phone calls can go on for many minutes...entirely divorcing the person from any connection to the real world around them.
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(Anonymous) 2009-09-12 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)