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Slow Down, Already!
We were all going at least 80 when I saw the couch tumble off the back of the pickup and roll down the fast lane. The car in front of me (the only one between my SUV and the couch) couldn’t dodge it. The eruption of wood, stuffing, and fabric was something else. The truck didn’t even slow down.
Already moving into the emergency lane to avoid the remnants, I slowed as the hit car limped over just in front of me. The poor driver was a young man of about 30. He was obviously in shock, with abrasions on his arm from the exploding air bag. His phone was somewhere in the back seat so I called 911.
One would think with debris all over the road, folks would slow down. They did not. The ambulance, when it got there, blocked some of the worst of it. The EMTs took the poor guy to the hospital. The firemen pulled their truck up behind the ambulance and got the rest of the stuff off the road. Then they moved up to protect us and our cars.
It was 95 degrees in the shade—of which there was none—in Dalton, GA. It took a while to figure out who had jurisdiction. The state trooper who showed up 45 minutes after we called was talking to the driver of the pickup at Home Depot. He had had an attack of conscience and stopped two exits down the road. He swore we were all in the slow lane. Yeah, with a witness and the couch leftovers in the median, that story didn’t hold up long.
I learned a couple of things from this adventure. 1) Always have a first aid kit in the car. 2) Have bottled water with me at all times. 3) Move over to the next lane when you see people either in the median or the emergency lane. 4) Slow down when there is an emergency. It amazes me that 25 people are not killed every day because somebody has some place to be and drives faster than conditions warrant. 5) Tie everything down twice as much as you think it needs and then add another couple of bungee cords.
Hats off to firefighters, EMTs, and state troopers. They are seriously underpaid.
Published in General
I place people who go out on *any* road with an improperly secured load in the same category as drunk drivers: it is gross negligence with potentially deadly consequences and the penalty should be the same.
I remember the day it was legal to allow children to ride in an open pickup bed. It was a good way to not have to pay for college. Just a funeral instead.
I loved riding in the back of my dad’s pick-up truck. However, we were admonished to stay sat right behind his window. Usually when we were going to a drive-in movie, had pillows and quilts in case we went to sleep.
I agree about slowing down, when you see an emergency situation on the road. If nothing else, it gives people a chance to complain about “those rubber-neckers slowing down traffic.” We wouldn’t wish to disappoint them.
Especially if there was an accident over on the other side of a divided highway. You have to really slow down to have any hope of seeing the carnage.
Slowing down≠rubbernecking.
One is reducing one’s speed not to run over responders or victims.
The other is just annoying.