I was cruising in the semi today on a 2-lane, country road out in farm country.
Yes, they do farm in the desert, believe it or not, mostly through the use of canals bringing the water to the fields.
I'm approaching this intersection and I'm seeing some strange stuff ahead.
There is a smashed up car blocking the lane I am in. I get up to the light and realized this accident must have just happened. Well police showed up right as I pulled up.
The police officer blocks the rest of any access I might have had to get around this vehicle, but there was a good reason why: there was debris all over the road. You wouldn't want to drive over a bumper, glass and other various things laying in the street. I was going to attempt to flip a u-ey in the dirt field on the other side of the street from me - but an apparent witness pulled his vehicle out of the intersection and effectively blocked that passage. I can't back up cause' there are cars behind me.
I literally have nowhere to go. The cop is offering me no help at all - like stop traffic from the opposite direction so I can go in the oncoming lane to get around this mess. Again, that was also understandable, there was still a lady sitting dazed and confused in her vehicle and he was running around attempting to secure the scene. It wasn't that I had an issue with the cops or the situation - it was a BAD accident. The car in front of me was not the only vehicle. There was another vehicle that was smashed into one of the stop light poles - that pole was broken in half and buckled over, the mini-van was smashed so badly, I wondered if there weren't some seriously injured people in that car.
Then, a fire truck comes up behind me and goes in to opposing traffic lane and then? That was the end of the story. There WAS no continuing on. Uhhh, not that I don't have sympathy for the injured, but paramedics and police are on-scene and they don't need my help, I have deliveries to make and one contractor is anxiously waiting on some of what was on my truck. I'm looking around. There is a farm on the other side of the street where the car blocked any idea of a u-turn. I guess I could have gotten out and asked the guy to move, but he was talking to police and I figured that took precedence so I passed on that idea. Well, there IS a very narrow, dirt road - such as the ones you see next to crops on all farms - yes, right next to the corn growing there. One side of the road is corn, the other is a steep drop off.
Yep. I crossed the road, over the embankment, onto the dirt, to the dirt road and drove down that thing until I found a place to cross over the curb, beyond the steep embankment and got myself out of there. Back up to the intersection I had been detained at, made a left hand turn and saw even more closely the damage to that mini van. Yikes!! Made the left hand turn and then - ambulance and another fire truck are heading towards me. Pull over - what IS it with people who do not want to pull over for emergency vehicles anymore? - let them pass and that was the end of that story.
2 comments:
When I lived in Miami, those people would get in behind emergency vehicles when traffic was dense and tail them around the traffic, through stop lights etc. But if they re beside one in traffic--I've actually seen them speed up and refuse to let an ambulance enter their lane even though it was obvious the emergency vehicle was trying to get there to get to the on ramp of an expressway. People are not playing with a full deck when it comes to driving.
I see it all the time. The people who don't respect the fact that those firefighters could be on their way to save someone's life and every second counts that won't pull over? They use it as an opportunity to pass everyone else and keep right on going. It would be nice if they would enact some much tougher laws concerning drivers that - don't really know how to drive or simply don't care that their actions are putting others at risk. Like not pulling over for an ambulance - suspend their license for 3 months. Sometimes, in the truck, I can't pull over because there are people next to me who won't move. I just stop in the middle of the street.
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