Today we were nearly either involved in an accident or would have been witness to it.
I bought a fridge on TradeMe for our little staff space at school and the boys and I headed to Paraparaumu to collect it. No problem and we were almost home. Travelling south on SH1 the traffic lights at Whitford Brown turned orange. I was in the outside lane and knew I wouldn't get across in time so I stopped .... as did the old man in the inside lane (next to me). But the great big Linfox double rig behind the old man put his foot down as he thought the old man was going to go. The next thing there was a huge squeal of brakes as the driver of the rig put his brakes on. Thank goodness there is a large verge on the right as I swerved into that to avoid the possibility of the Linfox coming into me. He managed to stop in time but the clouds of smoke from his tyres wafted right round us. Fortunately the old man didn't notice, but Colin looked at the driver of the Linfox and said he was looking pretty pale.
The kids were quite shaken and we discussed concentrating all the time as a driver and also being aware of what is going on around you. Colin particularly, was concerned as he was sitting on the inside.
4 comments:
maaaaaaaate...
sort of thing you don't want to think about the "what if's" with.
Glad that the driver was able to stop. It can be so scray. I had a very similar thing happen right in front of me this morning too. The man who was parked in front of me pulled out right in front of the traffic making 2 cars swerve round him and he seemed quite unaware
Oh man Jenny!!!
It's funny (as in seriously UNfunny) how often the following driver assumes the car in front will speed on through. Has happened to me a number of times - where I am the driver that stops and gives the driver behind a heart attack. Too many people seem to think Orange = go faster rather than stop unless that will be unsafe. Glad you guys came out of your incident with nothing worse than frayed nerves!
Wow, that was a close call. I am so pleased that the truck could stop.
I have seen a lot of big rig truckies speed up to shoot through late orange, almost red lights at intersections. They seem to think they are so big no one will bang into them so they own the road.
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