Tuesday, December 13, 2005

What's the big hurry?


We were heading back home from a doctors appointment for Elizabeth (we were specifically getting cream to treat her nasty butt rash, but that's a whole other story) when this incident occurred.
I am driving. We are still within the city limits. A sheriff's car has just passed me traveling in the opposite direction. It causes me to stop twirling my hair incessantly and actually pay attention to the road.
Not a minute later, a car comes roaring up behind me. A little gold or metallic beige car, one of those semi-sporty, semi-sedany cars. Like a late 90s model Dodge Intrepid. Like one of those "mom's still young and wild, but she needs trunk space" cars.
Anyway.
This car flies up behind me, crosses over two sets of double yellows into the opposing traffic lane (on a two lane road) speeds up and passes me and the car in front of me, crossing over another set of double yellows to do it.
All this about 50 feet before a narrow bridge over a wash, the bed of which is about 45 below from the roadway. Hello? Crash bang death.
I honked my horn at this car.
But that was all I could do.
I wonder if that person had just robbed a bank or something. They had to have been going 90 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone.
Where was the sheriff when I needed him? Intimidating other compulsive twirlers no doubt.
I only caught one more glimpse of that vehicle on my way home. The driver had passed someone else and was going very, very fast around some very curvy parts of the road. I secretly wished that person would crash, then felt guilty and took it back. Then remembering that he or she had jeopardized my own life just minutes before, reinstated my crash wish.
Is that wrong?

5 comments:

Freebird said...

Not if your kid was in the car, no.

Why is it always the idiot who causes the accident that survives and the innocent victims that end up dead. This happened twice this weekend in Houston.

First, some idiot was driving down the wrong side of freeway. CRASH! He kills two people, but he's fine. Next scenario, some 19 y/o intoxicated kid, crosses two lanes and plows into a car full of kids ages 12-16. Their care was on the shoulder because they ran out of gas. The 17 y/o driver had just walked away to call his father for help. Two girls died (12& 14 y/o), two other kids are in hospital. What do you think happened to the 19 y/o kid? Yeah, you guessed it! He's alive.

Jessica said...

Oh, I heard some crazy crash story over the weekend...what was it...
Something like a car was disabled on the side of the freeway and one of the passengers of that car was struck by a vehicle while waiting on the side of the road for help...
Man, I can't remember all the details. But gosh that stinks.

Also, this morning here in my town there was a crash between a pickup and an ambulance and the ambulance was carrying a patient from some other car accident to the hospital at the time. Talk about a rough day!
They crashed right in front of the newspaper offices, apparently it was a bad one.
I'm sure it'll be in the paper. I'll have to link to it on Friday.

Freebird said...

Oooh, poor guy/girl, whoever it was in that ambulance. I can't imagine being involved in a second crash. That's just horrible.

cube said...

I think the speed of life is just too fast. Everyone is running around like crazy trying to cram more & more in a day. They do the same thing behind the wheel of a car without even thinking. It's very sad.

Jessica said...

It is very sad, particularly because the scenery where I live is so beautiful, it's a shame that people are speeding by oblivious and missing all the beauty.