random_skeins (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} random_skeins) wrote,@ 2006-10-04 11:30:00 |
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Calling 911... hold please
They've ramped up patrols on 280 recently, so I've been driving more carefully. I was about a couple miles south of the Highway 35 exit driving northbound today in the second lane (from the left) when I noticed a pickup/SUV approaching in lane 1. It wasn't going much faster than me, but it was catching up.
As it comes within a couple car lengths of me, it moves into my lane, directly behind me. Boggle? He then almost immediately cuts back into lane one and hovers there, less than a car length behind the rear of my car, in the first lane.
I don't like him there, so I speed up a little. He speeds up a little, but at least now there is a little separation. It seems like he's pissed at me (I'm thinking possible road rage), so I'm going through the last few minutes of my drive, wondering if it's possible I did something to piss him off. It's been a very mellow drive this morning though, and I can't think of anything I could have done.
Regardless, he acted weird enough there with the lane switching that I don't think I want to be near him. I'm approaching a slower moving car in lane 2, and soon I need to decide what I'm going to do. I'm running through the options in my head, which range from passing the slower car on the right, braking hard to let the SUV shoot by me, etc. The last two lanes are empty, so at least I have a lot of room.
About 10 seconds have passed since I initially saw the car, maybe 5 seconds since he veered into and out of my lane. All of a sudden he starts veer to the left. He moves across the left stripe. I accelerate. I'm not sure what has happened to the car in front of me. Thankfully I think he has moved over to the right a lane, but regardless I know he's not in front of me.
He hits the guard median, spins about 270 degrees, doesn't flip, and ends up in the middle of lanes 2 and 3. I brake hard just in case someone ahead of me does something stupid like sees it in their rear view window and slides across a lane, but everyone in front of me seems to be oblivious or indifferent. It looks like the people behind the accident were far enough back they didn't hit him, though now there is debris all across the road.
I'm stunned for a second, but then realize I should call the accident in.
One thing I really liked about my major in Psychology is that while most degrees are pretty useless once you graduate, I apply psychology to my regular life frequently.
There were a bunch of witnesses, but I remembered from my intro to Psych class about a woman who was raped on a street in New York City. (It's been a while so I might be off on some of the specifics.) On that street was a high rise apartment complex. Many people heard the screams of the woman, and some even witnessed the rape from their windows. Yet no one called it in. When asked afterward, they all assumed that someone else was going to call it in.
Random tidbit: my cell phone makes a different noise when you call 911.
I'm connected and am greeted with an automated message that says, "You've reached 911. If this is an emergency, press any key or say 'one' now." I say one. I'm reconnected to someone else, and am informed briefly that there is no available operator yet and to please hold. They also say something in Spanish that is much longer, but I'm busy trying to remember what happened and what exit it was near, and the last time I took Spanish was in high school, so it was all a blur.
After about a minute, I speak to a live person, make my report, and then continue to work.
They've ramped up patrols on 280 recently, so I've been driving more carefully. I was about a couple miles south of the Highway 35 exit driving northbound today in the second lane (from the left) when I noticed a pickup/SUV approaching in lane 1. It wasn't going much faster than me, but it was catching up.
As it comes within a couple car lengths of me, it moves into my lane, directly behind me. Boggle? He then almost immediately cuts back into lane one and hovers there, less than a car length behind the rear of my car, in the first lane.
I don't like him there, so I speed up a little. He speeds up a little, but at least now there is a little separation. It seems like he's pissed at me (I'm thinking possible road rage), so I'm going through the last few minutes of my drive, wondering if it's possible I did something to piss him off. It's been a very mellow drive this morning though, and I can't think of anything I could have done.
Regardless, he acted weird enough there with the lane switching that I don't think I want to be near him. I'm approaching a slower moving car in lane 2, and soon I need to decide what I'm going to do. I'm running through the options in my head, which range from passing the slower car on the right, braking hard to let the SUV shoot by me, etc. The last two lanes are empty, so at least I have a lot of room.
About 10 seconds have passed since I initially saw the car, maybe 5 seconds since he veered into and out of my lane. All of a sudden he starts veer to the left. He moves across the left stripe. I accelerate. I'm not sure what has happened to the car in front of me. Thankfully I think he has moved over to the right a lane, but regardless I know he's not in front of me.
He hits the guard median, spins about 270 degrees, doesn't flip, and ends up in the middle of lanes 2 and 3. I brake hard just in case someone ahead of me does something stupid like sees it in their rear view window and slides across a lane, but everyone in front of me seems to be oblivious or indifferent. It looks like the people behind the accident were far enough back they didn't hit him, though now there is debris all across the road.
I'm stunned for a second, but then realize I should call the accident in.
One thing I really liked about my major in Psychology is that while most degrees are pretty useless once you graduate, I apply psychology to my regular life frequently.
There were a bunch of witnesses, but I remembered from my intro to Psych class about a woman who was raped on a street in New York City. (It's been a while so I might be off on some of the specifics.) On that street was a high rise apartment complex. Many people heard the screams of the woman, and some even witnessed the rape from their windows. Yet no one called it in. When asked afterward, they all assumed that someone else was going to call it in.
Random tidbit: my cell phone makes a different noise when you call 911.
I'm connected and am greeted with an automated message that says, "You've reached 911. If this is an emergency, press any key or say 'one' now." I say one. I'm reconnected to someone else, and am informed briefly that there is no available operator yet and to please hold. They also say something in Spanish that is much longer, but I'm busy trying to remember what happened and what exit it was near, and the last time I took Spanish was in high school, so it was all a blur.
After about a minute, I speak to a live person, make my report, and then continue to work.
