Bad Drivers

I've only been in a few automobile accidents in my life and only injured in one. I didn't know I was injured until after the accident. My brother, while driving from a parking lot on a corner, t-boned a car that was cutting the light. He was accelerating to merge with the traffic that had the right of way and the car was hauling ass to cut the light. After it was all said and done, I realized later that I had hit my head on the dashboard, which caused a small cut on my scalp and one hell of a heachache.

So, this evening, while leaving the same parking lot decades later, I witnessed another driver cutting the light. This time there was no accident, but it only brought back what I witnessed earlier today.

I was the second car at a traffic light at a highway intersection. The intersection is a controlled intersection, but about as dangerous as they can get before the highway department funds an overpass. There's too much high speed traffic, with drivers making the mistake of running the caution light. The accidents have been horrific. One accident left a pickup truck crushed to a third of the orginal length and the driver of the tractor-trailer injured. The truck driver thought he could make the light and the driver of the pickup truck was one of those drivers that floors the accelerator when the light changes.

So, I was waiting behind this pickup. The lady driving the truck was in an animate conversation on her cell phone while she angrily puffed on a cigarette. A motorcyle turned the corner and gunned the accelerator, which, I guess, triggered some instinctive response with the driver ahead. She started through the intersection as though the light had changed. The driver of the grey sedan coming from the right slammed on their brakes. The woman ahead continued on; oblivious of what she was doing, which was good. If she had so much as tapped her brakes, the grey sedan would have slammed into the passenger side of the pickup. Since she didn't slow her progress, the driver of the grey sedan managed to skid past the end of the pickup and continue on their way, while honking their horn in anger.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of what I had just witnessed, shook my head and want on about my business. It was just another one of rare close calls, or was it? After seeing the fool run the light, I realized it's not a good day to be driving. I think I'll stay home and suppress those urges for an ice cream sandwich.