We all have our moments (witness my pole incident) but yesterday I watched someone have about six of them within ten minutes. I was sharing the road with this person:
(For the locals – I had just turned off Brazos Street onto the flyover that takes you to 45, Memorial Drive, and Houston Avenue on my way home.)
As we entered the flyover, I looked up and saw the driver of the truck intently rifling through whatever was on his passenger seat… so intent that he suddenly swung into the right lane, nearly sideswiping the car there, then jerked back and almost hit the barrier at the edge of the flyover, and then of course slammed on his brakes. Screech! Brake! Near multi-car wreck! Funny what happens when you don’t look at the road.
Then about sixty seconds later, as we all came down to where you can exit left for Memorial and Houston Avenue, he figured out that was what he wanted to do at the very last second, suddenly swerved to the left to get into the exit ramp (nearly hitting the concrete divider and another car), and went on that way.
Less than sixty seconds later, he whipped over into the right lane heading to Memorial, again at the last second & nearly cutting somebody off. Needless to say, all the rifling around with whatever was so interesting continued.
So… we got to the light where you can turn onto Memorial (which is where I took the photo). It’s a two lane left turn; we were both in the left-most lane. Which means, of course, you turn into the left-most lane, unless you’re him, in which case you turn into the right-most lane (nearly hitting someone again).
Then he continued the short distance to where you merge off to the left onto Memorial (it’s a mini-parkway, for you non-Houstonians), and shot from the left lane across the center lane and into the right to get onto Memorial – going right through that would have been occupied by me, had I not been paying attention (having concluded by this point that he was a complete fucking moron and needed to be watched carefully).
He accelerated onto Memorial (I took it slow to put some distance between us) and was happily speeding along straddling the white line, occupying two of the three lanes.
It wasn’t quite over. He then exited onto Heights (as I did). I last saw him sitting at the green light, not moving, and getting honked at while I made a left onto Washington. Hey people, he has more important things to do than pay attention to what’s happening around him!
We all have those “whoops” moments when we miss a light, or don’t notice someone in the lane we’re entering. It’s been a while since I’ve seen so many in such a short time. That’s not “whoops,” that’s “I lack the judgment to operate a motor vehicle and need to be removed from the road before I kill someone.”
If you see that truck, put some distance between yourself and him!
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The classic “where’s a cop when you need one?!” Was it in “Contact” where people had video/cam sunglasses that could record things and you could send the video to the cops? I keep waffling between whether that’s the greatest idea since sliced bread, or the last straw in becoming an Orwellian state.
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I do think it does damage to our society’s sense of “right” and “fair play” when one person gets a speeding ticket for doing 6 over or for arguably rolling through a stop sign (at an empty intersection), yet buckos like this get off scott-free (and, if they’re also egregious speeders, they even get ahead in life — sometimes getting through green lights that are red by the time you get there).
Something I left out of the tale – when the guy nearly creamed me getting onto Memorial, I honked, and he gave me a “hey, sorry” wave. Which is in a way, worse than a middle finger – I think he had no idea that he was going anything wrong, despite nearly hitting several other vehicles and objects, and not even bothering to look out his windshield at what was around him.
People who know they are breaking the law can be punished into better behavior. People who have no idea why it’s bad to drive around without paying attention to anything would probably be shocked to be pulled over, and think it was unfair.
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