Last night while driving home, I avoided what could have
been a major accident. While stopped at
a red light, I glanced in my rear view mirror and noticed the driver in car
behind me was not paying attention. She was on her phone looking down at the passage
seat, then she reached over and diapering completely out of site. The light
turn green and I took off, a little ways up the road at the next stop light, traffic
all of the sudden was backing up fast. I applied my brakes and way coming to a
stop when I looked back at my rear view mirror and noticed that the car behind
me was coming in fast with no intentions of applying brakes anytime soon. I
looked ahead and to the left side of me for an escape route. I quickly merged
into the center turn lane. By the time I looked back in my review mirror the
driver of the car behind me was still not paying attention. By the time she realized
that she needed to apply her brakes she was right behind me. When she finally
came to a stop she was stopped right beside me. If I wouldn’t have quickly
moved to the center turn lane she would have rear ended me. By being aware of my surroundings and always
driving defensively I was able to avoid being in an accident.
My last car "accident" was pretty much the same scenario. The person behind me dropped her cell on the passenger side floor and while she was retrieving her phone the person in front of me cause me to slow down. By the time the car behind me sat back up she was forced to sideswipe my rear quarter panel. Since then, i have gotten into the habit of quickly checking my mirrors to see if the driver is paying attention and always leaving myslef an out. Good post Jim. Wish i would have read it like 3 months ago! :- ) By the way, after you and i talked about this, that very night i was driving home this happened to me again, this time i noticed the situation, and allowed plenty of space between me and the other driver (texting with both hands and drving with his knees)
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