Thursday, March 16, 2006

Another argument for Senior Citizen driving tests

So, my morning was the worst morning I've had in a while. I made my lunch (frozen dinner, heated, in a thermos) and started the car. Drove down the road and got a coffee, a Coke for later, and some throat drops, and went on my way to work. It was just after ten. I decided to take a different road to work, to see if it was any faster than my regular route. It started out well, and I was about halfway to my destination when I had to stop at a red light behind a Toyota Echo. I was shuffling through songs on my iPod trying to find something suitable. We were on a four lane street, but during non-peak times, the curb-side lane is for parking, and was full to my right. Just as I found an appropriate song, BANG.

I was slammed from behind, and my car was pushed forward so that I hit the Echo, although not very hard (so softly, in fact, that I didn't even remember the impact until me and Sexy Boyfriend were inspecting the car later.) After the initial bang, I then heard a scraping and more banging to my right as the car that hit me proceeded to sideswipe three parked cars (including a meter-reader who was in his car writing out a ticket), and then rear-end the Echo in front of me.

I was shocked for a second, and when I saw that the meter-reader was calling for police, I immediately called Sexy Boyfriend, since I have never had an accident and it's been 11 years since my Young Drivers instructor explained what to do when if I was ever in one. He told me he would be right there, so I hung up and got out of the car.

The driver of the offending vehicle was already out of the car, and I was INFURIATED. Not only were his glasses thicker than my thumb, but he was at least 87 years old. I'm not even joking. I thought he was broken when he got out of the car, but that's just the way he walks. He was bragging to the cop that he had been driving for 66 years (I'm not even exaggerating, it was really 66 years) and had never had an accident. I would argue that he never had an accident that he was aware of. Then he tells the cop that he couldn't stop - that he pressed the brake down as far as he could, but the car just kept speeding up. Yeah, so that wasn't the brake, then, I guess.

Anyway, I'm pretty much fine. I have a terrible headache and my lower back hurts, but so far my neck is okay and all that stuff. I feel like I may have a concussion cause I'm pretty sure I felt my brain smash into my fore-skull, but so far no puking or black-outs. Unless you count the drug-induced stupor I put myself into when I got home to get rid of my back pain.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure that this is a sign that you should never change your route to work EVER again.

-Sara