Driving home the other day, I looked out my rear view mirror. A smallish SUV driven by a woman was gaining quickly as I approached a car in my lane stopped waiting for the light to turn green.
OK not so bad until I add that when I looked back at her, she was turned around and doing something to a kid in a car seat. I was stuck with no way to get out from in front of her so for the next two blocks I did my best to avoid her while I saw her turn around at least two more times while moving and only maybe ten feet behind me. I sure wish I had a camera on at that time. She turned and I relaxed again.
That ranks up there with texting and driving and the people who drive with a book open, resting on the steering wheel as they drive. Multitasking can be a life-threatening habit for some people.
I got rear ended by a woman who apologized and admitted that she wasn’t looking because she was screaming at her kids in the back seat. By the look on her face (weary) and the large stain on her blouse, it was obvious she wasn’t having a very good day.
It was just a bump so we went our separate ways.
I’m glad that you managed to avoid being hit by this inattentive woman.
Why do so many people now believe that they can multi-task while they drive?
Mr. Meehan, I think I ran across this woman’s sister about 2 weeks ago while coming home. At least in this case she was in front of me. She was constantly bending over in the front seat doing something. There may have been a toddler involved.
At the light, on the move, or whatever, she was contantly turning around and leaning over; all the time with the left hand clutching the cell phone. This went on for 3 miles in traffic with her wandering around on the roadway. My mind was made up that if she was in an accident I was going to stop and offer my name to the cops as a witness to what she was doing.
Just another reason why we should replace the airbag in the steering wheel with a 4~8 inch spike that sticks out of the middle of the steering wheel. With the spike being only an inch or two away from the person’s face, neck or chest, then they might pay more attention to their surroundings while they drive.
Ya gotta keep watching out for the idiots.
My business is on a four lane 45 MPH street without a center left turn lane. I come from the direction from which I have to turn left and nose up to a closed gate every morning when I come to work. I can’t approach that gate very fast as there is just enough room to park outside while I unlock. I watch my rear view mirror VERY CLOSLY every time I turn in. I do not know how many times in the last 20 years I have hit the gas and gone to another driveway down the street rather than be rear ended. I have had several customers get hit from behind, usually with their wheels already turned in anticipation of their turn. Not good.
Another inattention story. My wife, Mrs Mc, works for a company that has several business jets. She used to see a 30ish lady in traffic every once in a while who always seemed to be applying make up while driving, including eye shadow. After seeing this happen several times, Mrs Mc found out that the young lady was one of the corporate pilots. Now THAT’S scary.
I had the shoe sort of on the other foot once. I was waiting behind someone to turn left at a red light. I leaned over to find something on the floor of my car and inadvertently tapped the horn. Just a single tap, like you’d use to remind someone that the light had turned green when they weren’t watching.
Apparently the person in front of me wasn’t watching, as they heeded my horn and proceeded to take off through the red light and turn left, nearly killing them self and almost causing a multi-car pileup.
I was driving through one of the cities near where I live. It was the nearest city at the time, as I have moved since then. This city has a taxi company with a fleet of orange Chrysler minivans. I was attempting to detach one of these orange Caravans from my rear bumper once, going 50-55 mph in a 30 zone. The cabbie was driving very aggressively to say the least. I was on my way to Goodwill to drop some stuff off, so I pulled into their parking lot going about 20-25 mph, tires howling in protest, and slammed on the brakes as soon as I was out of the road. Mind you, I had signaled at least a full block in advance and had been tapping the brakes, but that just made him get even closer than the twelve inch window he was allowing between our vehicles. All Goodwill stores have a parking lot that is 10% the size it needs to be, so this was a scary experience. That orange Caravan missed tagging my rear bumper by about two inches. I dropped the stuff off and continued on my way. Three blocks up the road, I saw the same orange Caravan piled into the back of a Buick Park Avenue. It looked like the Buick was fully stopped and the Caravan had been going 30-40 mph when it hit the Buick. I seriously considered stopping and waiting for the cops to show up so I could tell them what was going on minutes before this accident, but I already had a busy day, so regretfully I did not.
I remember one occasion where someone was on my bumper that I could not even see the headlights. I was in my Civic at the time and they had a first gen. Dodge Neon, so they had to be REALLY close for me not to see their headlights(it was daytime, but I still couldn’t see their headlight fixtures). I had moved over slightly to allow them to pass, but they never did, I’m doing 60 in a 55. Finally, after a few minutes of this, I hit my brakes, only to hear tires screeching behind me as they had to slam theirs on hard. THEN they decide to go around me, only to turn into a business about 1/4 mile up the road.
Easy solution, Mr. Meehan:
That’s how Stephen King nearly took a dirt nap. He was out walking for his health when a driver who was distracted by his loose dogs ran him over. (I also know a fitness nut who was out biking and lost control on a hill and broke his neck. I’ve decided the healthiest thing I can do is sit on my couch eating cheetos.)
He wrote that incident rather amusingly into one of the final books in the Dark Tower series. Wrote the van driver as a totally brainless moron.
I read it. He did meet the guy, after all. King also bought the truck from police impound so he could smash it up himself.
those are the days I want to be driving my 15 year old Ranger. It would take the hit better, and I am really waiting for it to die to donate its carcass.
These are the people I really need to watch our for on my motorcycle. It’s hard enough to get drivers to actually SEE me when they are paying attention.