Bearing Witness
There is no sound I know of that is quite as terrifying as that of two cars colliding when at least one is traveling a moderate speed. Even if you are not in the drivers seat (which, today, I was not, thankfully) it just grabs at your very soul and squeezes it like a dirty dishrag.
I've been on the victim side of that noise three times in my life. The first was a case of two teenage drivers, both of whom probably still had a lot to learn about things like reaction time and gauging the speed of other cars and such, on a rainy Friday during rush hour.
The other two were thanks to idiots running red lights. In both of those cases I had a witness to attest to the facts.
The first was very early on a November morning. I was sitting alongside another car on a side street, waiting to cross a major arterial (on 33rd headed northbound across Sandy, for you Portlanders out there). The light turned green for us, so I went. Right into the side of a truck that was flying down Sandy. The person sitting next to me pulled over to call the police and give me her info as a witness. As we were waiting for the cops to arrive she mentioned that she had previously been victim to an idiot running a red light, so was always a little extra cautious when lights changed. I've been equally cautious ever since.
The second incident was less than a year later. On a major arterial crossing over an Interstate during rush hour in early fall, when it was still bright out at that time. (heading west on Glisan across I-205). I had started my way through the intersection, when the idiot coming off the freeway decided he didn't need to stop at the red light as he was turning left onto Glisan, and nailed my front passenger side tire. A LOT of people witnessed that accident. At least one person rolled down his window as he was driving past and called out that he had called the police. Lots of other people weren't driving anywhere, as my car was blocking traffic, and with the front wheel caved in it wasn't going anywhere until the tow truck arrived. One pedestrian, who happened to be crossing the interstate at that moment, stopped and gave me her name, address and phone number. No one else, just her.
She got flowers from me a few weeks later, as I was going through the grand inquisition with both his and my insurance companies, and it looked like we were headed to court. The phone calls were constant and annoying as all hell, with everyone in the world wanting to hear my story of what had happened that day. Then one day my insurance agent called me up, "Repairs have been authorized, his insurance company is handling it all." I questioned them as to why things had been so ugly just a day earlier, and now everything was smooth sailing. His insurance company had just gotten around to calling the witness, and realized they didn't have a pot to piss in.
Today I was on my way to the local strip mall during my lunch hour. The light at the entry to the mall was red, but the car in front me of me was also turning into the mall, so I likely wasn't going to have to wait long. Then I noticed the car in the left lane wasn't slowing down. It's been rainy lately, and I didn't get much sleep last night... did I register the color of the light wrong? Nope, it's red alright. And about that moment the truck pulling out of the mall slammed into the car that was probably traveling at least 30 mph.
That noise just chilled me.
And the driver in front of me almost gave me road rage. Because rather than pulling into the mall and parking his car he decided to stop on the side of the road, halfway pulled into the mall parking lot, on his cell phone. Presumably calling the police. Which left me sitting out on the street with my rear end hanging out, begging for another accident to happen. Perhaps he thought that since the police and paramedics would be there shortly we might as well make things worth there while.
I made my way around that idiot, jotted down all my vital information on a sheet of paper, then stepped up to the accident to give my information to the victim. People were streaming out of nearby offices at this point and no one seemed to be in imminent danger, so I opted to continue on with my lunch rather than hang around and rubberneck.
The police officer called me later this afternoon to hear my story. I told him, to the best of my memory, what happened, and it appears that my story corroborated with the other reports he had heard.
I'm just paying it backwards.
I've been on the victim side of that noise three times in my life. The first was a case of two teenage drivers, both of whom probably still had a lot to learn about things like reaction time and gauging the speed of other cars and such, on a rainy Friday during rush hour.
The other two were thanks to idiots running red lights. In both of those cases I had a witness to attest to the facts.
The first was very early on a November morning. I was sitting alongside another car on a side street, waiting to cross a major arterial (on 33rd headed northbound across Sandy, for you Portlanders out there). The light turned green for us, so I went. Right into the side of a truck that was flying down Sandy. The person sitting next to me pulled over to call the police and give me her info as a witness. As we were waiting for the cops to arrive she mentioned that she had previously been victim to an idiot running a red light, so was always a little extra cautious when lights changed. I've been equally cautious ever since.
The second incident was less than a year later. On a major arterial crossing over an Interstate during rush hour in early fall, when it was still bright out at that time. (heading west on Glisan across I-205). I had started my way through the intersection, when the idiot coming off the freeway decided he didn't need to stop at the red light as he was turning left onto Glisan, and nailed my front passenger side tire. A LOT of people witnessed that accident. At least one person rolled down his window as he was driving past and called out that he had called the police. Lots of other people weren't driving anywhere, as my car was blocking traffic, and with the front wheel caved in it wasn't going anywhere until the tow truck arrived. One pedestrian, who happened to be crossing the interstate at that moment, stopped and gave me her name, address and phone number. No one else, just her.
She got flowers from me a few weeks later, as I was going through the grand inquisition with both his and my insurance companies, and it looked like we were headed to court. The phone calls were constant and annoying as all hell, with everyone in the world wanting to hear my story of what had happened that day. Then one day my insurance agent called me up, "Repairs have been authorized, his insurance company is handling it all." I questioned them as to why things had been so ugly just a day earlier, and now everything was smooth sailing. His insurance company had just gotten around to calling the witness, and realized they didn't have a pot to piss in.
Today I was on my way to the local strip mall during my lunch hour. The light at the entry to the mall was red, but the car in front me of me was also turning into the mall, so I likely wasn't going to have to wait long. Then I noticed the car in the left lane wasn't slowing down. It's been rainy lately, and I didn't get much sleep last night... did I register the color of the light wrong? Nope, it's red alright. And about that moment the truck pulling out of the mall slammed into the car that was probably traveling at least 30 mph.
That noise just chilled me.
And the driver in front of me almost gave me road rage. Because rather than pulling into the mall and parking his car he decided to stop on the side of the road, halfway pulled into the mall parking lot, on his cell phone. Presumably calling the police. Which left me sitting out on the street with my rear end hanging out, begging for another accident to happen. Perhaps he thought that since the police and paramedics would be there shortly we might as well make things worth there while.
I made my way around that idiot, jotted down all my vital information on a sheet of paper, then stepped up to the accident to give my information to the victim. People were streaming out of nearby offices at this point and no one seemed to be in imminent danger, so I opted to continue on with my lunch rather than hang around and rubberneck.
The police officer called me later this afternoon to hear my story. I told him, to the best of my memory, what happened, and it appears that my story corroborated with the other reports he had heard.
I'm just paying it backwards.
posted by Swankette at 9:35 PM
2 Comments:
I've only been in one accident where it was a set up - they were waiting for someone to travel down a main street and then they pulled out in front of me from a side street. What a nightmare - they tried to sue me but our lawyer kicked their butt. There are some crazy drivers out there...
I've had that happen to me on both sides of the steering wheel. Scary as hell.
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