It Gives Me Pause ....

It Gives Me Pause ....

The impact rendered her airborne because he was so much bigger than she was.  He had plenty of time, but didn’t seem to even attempt to touch his brakes….His sheer size and power rendered him king for the moment, deciding who lives and who dies.  He was after all, a brawny dump truck.  He up-shifted in the 40 mph residential zone and his stack belched an uncaring black exhaust of smoke upward to the heavens as he left the scene. 

It was me, driving behind him that saw the full panorama of what happened.  I was four car-lengths behind him.  Only one of us was slowing as we neared a school zone which would require 20 mph.  Still, the oncoming cars had stopped completely.  As I said, he never touched his brakes, not even for a second.  It made me sick to my stomach and I wanted to pull over to the side of the road and weep for her – she rolled onto a lawn and began her confusing process of dying.  She had not traveled alone, but certainly she was alone in her passing onward to wherever her spirit tended.

The other vehicles and I saw the whole herd of perhaps four or five deer on the south side of the residential street as they leapt into traffic to cross north-bound.  The first few made it to the grass and fled into the woods – their momentary gamble of crossing had shook their calm demeanor even before It, that terrible thing, happened.  The very last one, a young doe, tried to pour on the speed as her hoofs scrambled for traction on the pavement.  The truck had plenty of time to stop, or even to pause to make her way safe.  He did not.

I have a few compound words that have crossed my brain in his regard.  I was tempted to tailgate him and give him a hand signal a little more singular than a five-fingered wave.  But if he didn’t respect her life to pause for a second, why would I think he would respect mine?  It disturbed me that we were so close to a school zone – what if that had been a group of kids bolting across the road?!

So this whole incident begs the classic question I ask usually once a week:  What the HELL is the matter with people?!

Two months ago, I was driving to work and was quite disturbed by a sequence of events that unfolded.  I merged onto the freeway via the ramp.  I had plenty of time to move one more lane over into the flow of traffic which was spaced out quite generously.  However, the guy that was far back in that middle lane in his kick-arse jeep decided I was too slow for his liking.  (And by the way, I am not a slow, pokey driver by any stretch of the imagination.)  He rode right up my backside and then passed me on the RIGHT (illegal) and cut in front of me (illegal), and then touched his brakes (just plain stupid). 

Now I ask you:  how would he feel if I reacted, slammed on my brakes, was rear ended, and then subsequently hit by a few cars in the flow of traffic and killed?  Because, in fact, that was certainly one of the options that could have played-out.  For whatever reason, way behind me, he took something personal and decided to deliver a message by his bad behavior.  Any law enforcement officer who witnessed that behavior would have ticketed him for “road rage.”  I did not realize it at the time, but I could have taken his license plate and called it in.  I’m sure that even though he turned onto the westbound ramp to the other freeway, they could have picked him up pretty quickly.  Next time I will do exactly that.  But I hope there is never a next time because it was kind of scary.  Scratch that “kind of.”  It was just plain scary.

Let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that vehicles are machines and as such they are dangerous.  With this knowledge comes responsibility.  Slow down.  Turn off the cell phone.  Don’t text because you won’t be ROTFL if you hurt someone or some animal and damage your vehicle to boot.  Think about LIFE when you are driving – and how so much depends on YOU and your care for what is going on around you.  Be present in the moment.  Don’t drive drunk, high, thoughtless, angry or stupid.  I imagine, for some people that means they have to turn in their car keys.

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