Florida: Idiots Driving
Here’s another way the acronym “ID” could be instantiated: idiots driving. I commute to work, and yesterday morning I was on I-275 northbound coming into St. Petersburg. I was in the right-hand lane, and a Honda Odyssey was in the left-hand lane. We were traveling at just about the same speed, and had been for a while. There was no traffic ahead of us for another quarter-mile or so.
The Honda was maybe five feet further ahead than we were as we approached 54th Ave. South. Suddenly, the Honda starting coming over to the right. As it crossed the line marking the lanes, I honked, expecting the driver to correct course and return fully to their lane. It kept coming right. I kept the horn going, but veered right and braked, too, to avoid a collision. It’s just as well, because the Honda driver apparently didn’t change their plan at all and simply completed their lane change. If I hadn’t been paying attention, we’d have had a two-vehicle mashup at 65 MPH on the interstate.
Diane was able to get a couple of photos just afterward. Here’s the back-end and license plate of the vehicle I saved from a high-speed crash:
And here’s one of the driver and passenger we prevented from coming to serious harm and injury:
“Practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.”
Vince Lombardi (1913-1970)
And, as you have discovered, evidence of this truism is all around us on the road.
So you were cruising along in their blind spot for several miles, and it’s their fault for not realizing you were there? Sounds to me as if you’ve got the wrong idiot.
(Maybe it’s not as bad as you make it sound, but I never match the speed of a car next to me if at all possible – either I pass them or let them pass me, in order to prevent just this sort of circumstance.)
Golly, you read a lot of uncomplimentary — and false — stuff into what I wrote, Kevin. I didn’t say that there was no variation in speed, or that I stayed in their blind spot. Nor was that the case. My vehicle is a white Chevy Silverado four-door crew cab pickup truck, not exactly a small thing to forget as one pulls ahead of it.
Wow! I’m glad you’re okay. I walk my 3 dogs every day and frequently have close calls with crazy drivers nearly running us over.
My apologies for reading too much into it (or maybe too little), but this is pretty much all you said about your relative positions and status:
“We were traveling at just about the same speed, and had been for a while.”
“The Honda was maybe five feet further ahead than we were as we approached 54th Ave. South.”
Maybe I’ve done too many math word problems in my life (where the information you’re given is all you’re supposed to consider), but it did make it sound as if you’d been cruising in their blind spot.
Anyhow, glad to hear I was mistaken and that you and your vehicle survived unscathed.
You don’t have to quote what I just wrote in the post.
Those do not “make it sound” anything of the sort. That’s just your over-active imagination.
Hi, trolls. Please read the comment policy. I’m not inclined to allow a first-time commenter with fake email to take a rhetorical dump on my blog. Anonymously whining about taking responsibility does rank up there in the chutzpah stakes, though.