Monday, April 25, 2011

A plea...and hopefully I'm preaching to the choir.

This afternoon on the way home from the park and groceries, the kids and I nearly became a nasty statistic. We were in the left lane, northbound, on Route 202. There were cars on my right, two cars in the left turn lane, and two cars very close behind me. Evidently, the driver of the second car in the turn lane realized that the car in front of her was not going to move, because she swerved directly in front of me, and took the turn from my lane.

Did she signal? Nope.
Did she look before moving into my lane? Nope

What made it much, much more dangerous? The two cars behind mine, both way, way too close. They had to be going 60 in a 35 zone. And you know what? The guy right behind me was on his phone THE WHOLE TIME. And he stayed on his phone as long as we saw him...he may still be on it.

Thank goodness our brakes are good. Thank goodness I was paying attention. It was very much a prepare-for-impact moment. I was already trying to remember if I had our health insurance cards with us. We were seconds -- two or three at most -- from being sandwiched. Paul and Maggie are fine -- Paul did hit his head on the side of the car but he says he's okay. Mostly, we got a BIG scare.

So here's my plea to everyone: use your turn signals. Stop driving like you're playing a video game. Slow down. And most of all...STAY THE HELL OFF YOUR PHONE WHEN YOU'RE DRIVING!!!


- I wrote this on my iPad

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