Thursday, October 23, 2008

Stupid Human Drivers

I stole this title from Roger.
The one and only time he ever blogged was about stupid human drivers.
And he called them "human" and not people.
It was like he did not want to be grouped with those humans.
The real crazy part is that he never had an accident with another moving car.
Yeah, we hit a raccoon once that caused some decent body damage.
And his cousin Eddie can tell you some stories about a mailbox but otherwise, Roger was a decent driver.

I swear I am a good driver.
But lately, I'm super nervous.
Every time I hear tires squeal, I jump and my skin crawls.
If someone gets to close to me on the side, I scream.
If someone starts tailgating me, I start to feel angry.
When I see drivers being all super aggressive, I try to get as far away from them as possible.

It is even worse if I have people in the car with me.
I can't even seem to shift smoothly.
I get all jerky with the clutch.
And I definitely can't talk to the people in the car and shift nicely.
I also feel responsible for their lives.
What if something terrible happens to them while they are in my car.
It's not much better if I'm a passenger either.
It's just horrible.

It also seems accidents want to occur with me.
A few weeks ago, a semi pulled out into the left lane of a three lane highway in front of me from the right shoulder of the road.
It was raining so that didn't help my mental capacity.
I started crying and screaming at him.
I had to slam on my brakes where the speed limit is 65mph and of course that's how fast I was going.
Thankfully the guy behind me saw it happening and reacted as well.

Also, when I see an accident, I just can't look.
I just want to drive by it as soon as possible.
When I see emergency vehicles driving past me, I just get chills running over me.
I say a small prayer for whoever it is and hope for the best for them.
And of course I get really angry when other drivers don't let them get by.
I've never understood why people don't respect that.

I've started paying attention to how I sit in the car.
"Am I sitting up straight?"
"If a car hit me right now, do I have a safe sitting position?"
"Should I put my leg here or here? Which one makes the chances of hurting my legs less if I'm hit from the side?"
I am also very aware of what is in the car and the location of it.
"Where is my purse? I don't want it to be too far away so I can grab it."
"If I were in an accident, can I loose this?"
"Can I be without this for two weeks?"

Oh stupid driving...
Oh stupid humanness...

3 comments:

Valerie said...

I definitely feel afraid driving here sometimes. Drivers in Orlando REALLY scare me! It's like something switches off in their brains once they get in the car, and they forget how to drive by rules and laws.

John Moeller said...

I resort to "Crazy Ivans" to keep other drivers away from me...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Ivan

If you look more crazy than the offending driver, they tend to back way off. It keeps tailgaters away and also forces those drivers who like to drive right beside you for miles and miles to move away as well....

Suzanne said...

My husband and I were in a bad car accident a few years ago. My heart still races every time I almost get into an accident, or hear brakes screech. It takes me a few minutes to calm back down.