The sleepy drive to work on Monday received a slight jolt of adrenaline when I saw the blue lights a couple hundred yards ahead. It was a wreck – nice way for somebody to begin the week. As I drove by, I saw the city truck, one of those large, yard waste monsters. Close behind it was the crumpled front of what looked to have been, less than an hour before, some kind of mid size sedan. “Texting and driving,” I thought to myself.
The next day I got on the interstate, heading home, west from downtown. It’s zero to 60 and back to zero for the first couple of miles. I got to the far left lane – the fast lane, whatever that means in rush-home traffic. The speed was good but I could see the red of brake lights ahead and I began to slow. Checking the rear view I saw the white suburban with the woman driver coming up fast. She was also talking on her cell. A behemoth four times my size was barreling down on me, and being guided by someone on the phone. I saw an opening and swerved to the middle lane, somewhat sorry for the guy who’d just been in front of me.
Which reminds me of another traffic story. I was coming up an undivided two-lane highway a few years back, and as the fast-moving heavy traffic came into the city limits, I saw the cars stopping in front of me. I think I was going about 50 and could see that the car in front had come to a dead stop. No time for me to stop, but there was time to change lanes, which I did. The guy riding my rear didn’t, and he slammed into the stopped car in a pretty violent collision. I wondered for a bit if I had done anything wrong. Surely dodging is not an offense?
But back to last week... I was in the center lane now but behind me came another woman in another SUV. She had her arm stretched fully in front of her, above the steering wheel and dash, and she was either texting or dialing a number – not that it mattered much to me at that moment. There was no opening right, so I went back left, where the other terror of the highway I had escaped just seconds before had been. She was still there and still on the phone, but at least she wasn’t dialing.
The next day I took one of the non-interstate routes. It was pretty slow going but I felt safer. Then, about half way home, the cars quit moving. When they started again, it was at a pace of two to three mph. Twenty minutes later, we had gone about two miles when we came to the wreck that had jammed us up.
Where what to my wondering eyes should appear, but another poor schmuck who’d been rammed in the rear.
Come on people!
Later that night, after I’d finally made it home, I got a call from Karen at work. She had been on her way home when traffic came to a stop on the river bridge. But for an odd reason, someone in her lane didn’t stop.
Hmmmmm... I wonder what that could have been?
They slammed into the car three behind Karen, who slammed into the car two behind Karen, who slammed the car right behind Karen, who slammed Karen, totaling out her little clean Ford and giving her some serious body aches for the next few days.
What could be worse? Maybe no insurance for the idiot that caused all of that.
Maybe trolleys aren’t so silly after all.