Have you had a vehicle not see you and suddenly almost force you off the road? A truck just last month pulled over on my wife and me, going about 70 miles an hour, and pushed us onto the side of the road as I honked and slowed down so he would see me in his mirror. I don't know if he saw me or heard the horn, but anyway, we survived, underscoring that people are becoming distracted drivers. We’re also becoming distracted pedestrians; I know I must watch for people in parking lots. We (and I’m guilty) are thinking about so much in our hectic world. So, I expect people to walk across before me, not looking where they’re going.
When I had a 125cc Honda motorcycle, I drove almost everywhere. In 1969, virtually all the speed limits were 70 mph, but my Honda could only reach 60 mph full throttle.
One story is about the day I invited my brother to motor over to Walla Walla, WA, about 80 miles from Richland, my home. With the added weight, I could do only 55mph and even slower in a good headwind. Being a teenager and just a little stupider, I decided to pass a semi-truck on a curving road. I couldn't see what was approaching due to the curve, and as I started to pass, I got halfway along the side of the truck and realized my speed was not enough to pass. At that very moment, a truck in the other lane was approaching the opposite way. Well, I was stuck between two huge trucks, one passing very quickly and was caught in a vaccum of buffeting air pressure and why i'm here to tell the story I don't know!
Later in our lives, when I was older, I asked my brother to recall this incident; he had blacked it out of his mind. If under hypnosis, he probably would have remembered it. When on a motorcycle, you have to pay attention to every driveway when in a residential situation because the driver will pull out not looking for a motorcycle but looking for a car, so I had many close calls where if I weren't paying attention, I would have been seriously injured.
Every person has little things where you mishandle situations, and you need to pay extra attention and work every day to avoid an accident. I don't always see white cars, so when looking both ways, I repeatedly look for white cars. Also, (probably just my age), I am highly distracted when talking to a passenger, so I always tell the passenger to shut it up or your life is in peril. The most important thing I can pass on is never staying in someone's blind spot.
Ric
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