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Posts Tagged ‘Auto Accident’

A while back, I barely missed becoming involved in an auto accident. It was one that could have certainly been avoided had a driver not yielded their right-of-way to another. I came within inches of smashing into the minivan of elderly couple who hadn’t realized the need to yield themselves to another lane of traffic. Bygones.

But it was as if it were foretold when the occurrence repeated itself. This time it came with consequences. Luckily for me, I was not involved. I was a witness, however.

A fellow co-worker was travelling in the left lane while passing cars to his immediate right. Upon reaching the front of these stopped cars, an older gentleman drove out from a gas station driveway and tagged the co-worker’s car. The woman at the front of the line was trying to be nice by allowing the older gentleman to enter the road on the assumption that he was going to turn right. She mentioned that she didn’t see a turn signal showing an intent to turn left which led her to the assumption of a right turn. The area, known for its heavy traffic, prompted the older gentleman to hasten his entry to the street, ignoring the fact that he had two lanes to cross, not just one.

The end result is exactly what I would like to avoid by getting this point across: Follow the rules of the road as they are written. If someone is wanting to enter the road in which you are a part of, the burden is not on you to create a clear lane of traffic. The burden is on them to find one. I understand the dogmatic idea of doing unto others as you would them to do unto you. However, to quote a line from S.W.A.T., “Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t doing the right thing.” Below is what happened when someone tried to do the right thing.

I ranted a few days ago about the actions of a so-called good samaritan that almost led to a serious vehicle accident involving myself and at least one other party. Looking back, I can’t lay the blame entirely on the good samaritan. The road in question is notorious for being difficult to enter. Numerous businesses line both sides of the street for almost its entire length, and it’s long and heavily traveled. That wasn’t the first time someone tried to enter traffic from that driveway and try to turn left at the same time. They certainly won’t be the last.

I just think that had the good samaritan retained control of his right of way as he was legally allowed to do, the other party would not have felt obligated to take the opening provided to him and put himself into a dangerous position. I could not see the other party entering traffic. My first observation was watching all of the cars in front of the good samaritan traveling away while he didn’t move. As I was about a car length and a half away, I noticed the other party venturing out. They weren’t looking in my direction and never yielded until they heard screeching tires. By then, the other party was completely blocking my lane of traffic.

I was traveling about 30 miles per hour and had to lock up the tires in order to stop. The following day, I drove by the same area and could see my tire tracks on the pavement. I ended up pointing towards the traffic coming in the opposite direction and my left tire had stopped halfway between the double-yellow lines. There was an SUV approaching from the other direction that had to stop just as fast and was slightly past my front bumper when it did. I was on the phone with my brother at the time (more about that a little later) and could very well have not paid attention as closely as I had. The end result could have been catastrophic.

At work, we call these kinds of events “Near Misses”. It’s an accident that had the potential of being much worse than it actually was. Investigations are conducted, reports are made, rules are updated and mandated. The end result is having company-wide meetings where everyone is made aware of the changes in the rules including the possible reprimands should they be broken in the future.

It would certainly be nice to shut down that driveway.