Drive Safely

I see so many accidents here (in our shop) it's ridiculous. Driving is not that difficult. One peddle speeds you up, one peddle slows you down, and the giant wheel right in front of you steers the vehicle. It's not rocket science or brain surgery, guys. It's not the roads fault either. It's flat, the lines are well marked, there are working lights and turn lanes...

So why do you people keep trying to kill eachother?

Every day I see at least one accident or one near-accident, sometimes more than one a day. Is it too much to ask that you get off your cell phones and pay attention to what you're doing? Two of the more major accidents I've seen here were so easily avoidable it makes me wonder how in the hell they happened in the first place.

The first was some guy in a van trying to turn out of Big Boys. Without even looking he backs out of his parking spot and pulls right out of the driveway into oncoming traffic. Some poor older man in a small car plowed right into him, though it's not his fault -- he had the right of way. The guy in the van pulled out right into the guy in the car. There was less than 5 feet between them and traffic on this road travels at about 45-50 mph. There was no way that the guy in the van could accelerate fast enough to beat the speed of the car (or any other car on the road).

Impatient jackass. As if he couldn't have simply waited another 3 minutes for the light to turn red so that he could pull out safely. Now his van is half smashed and the innocent guy in the small car couldn't even get his vehicle to start up again. Thank whatever power that you believe in that no one was seriously injured.

The second accident was even worse than the first and twice as absurd.

There were two cars in the turn lane waiting for the light so that they could make their turns and a third guy slowed down to pull into the turn lane behind them -- the semi truck behind him however decided yielding to traffic was for sissies and smashed into him at 50 mph forcing the smaller car sideways into both of the other cars in the turn lane. Metal and glass went everywhere!

The guy who had been trying to merge lanes? His vehicle was smashed, what had been a small ford truck was now about the size of a pinto, having been smashed from behind, the side, and the front. The two cars in the turn lane, innocent by standers? Also smashed. The semi responsible? Not even a dent.

I had to call 911 due to the severity of the accident. 30 minutes later the rescue teams still could not get the merging guy safely out of his truck-pinto. Luckily everyone else walked away with minor injuries and only the guy in the totally demolished truck wound up in the ambulance. But why did the semi not break in the first place? What could that guy have possibly been doing that was more important than controlling his vehicle?

I should have gone out there and kicked him in the junk for being such an inconsiderate careless douchebag.

Every time I hear someone lay on their horn or breaks screech I think I'm about to witness yet another act of senseless negligence. I'm afraid one of these days we're going to be watching people sealed up in body bags. If you want to kill yourself do it at home, don't endanger others with your stupidity. The disregard is disgusting. Please, please drive safely.