Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Escaping Death (or just a fender bender)

The baby and I went for an innocent drive to the grocery store to deposit a couple of checks and pick up some pictures.  We went the back way to avoid traffic.  That was a mistake.  I ended up behind a big truck (see my opinion of big trucks here) going 10 mph.  UGH!  Shortly after noticing me behind him he centered himself in the lane rather than off to the side like he had been.  I decided to be patient because I wasn't in a hurry and prefer not to be upset if I don't have to.  Then he went 5 mph.  Then he stopped.  By now I had my eyebrow raised and wondered why he was just sitting there in the middle of the lane.  While I contemplated giving a light beep of the horn to make sure he knew I was there I saw his reverse lights come on.  I fumbled simultaneously with the gear shift and the horn, trying to find something that would work while I panicked.  I found the horn before the gear shift.  He didn't stop.  I put the car into reverse just before he hit me and prayed there was no one behind me.  After I looked behind me and saw no one there I went in reverse faster be cause the guy still wasn't stopping.  He looked behind him before he started, so I don't know how he could have missed my red car.  I probably drove in reverse for about 50 feet before someone came up behind me.  At that point the driver decided he had gone far enough in reverse and resumed forward motion.  And stopped.  Again.  By this point I wanted to throw something at him.  It was another 20 seconds before he moved forward and finally turned on to another road to molest some other unsuspecting driver.  I should have gotten his license number, but what do you say?  "Some idiot was driving backwards at me and this is his plate number.  Just thought you should know."  I was satisfied not to have to swap insurance information.

3 comments:

Sharon said...

Holy cow...I'm glad that the ending is a happy one!

[Morgan] said...

i really really really have hard feelings toward clueless drivers...

Charlotte said...

I hate people! Nothing makes me more mad than inconsiderate people. Especially when they're on the road. I'm glad he didn't hit you!