It was bucketing down with rain a few weeks ago. I was driving back from who knows where on a very busy 2 lane road. Up ahead in the left hand lane, I could see a car trundling along quite slowly with its hazard lights on. Cars were changing lanes to get around it. As it was travelling quite close behind another car, I initially thought that it had broken down and was getting a tow.
Not quite.
When I got closer, I saw that it was one P-plater following another. The guy in front had obviously been zoom-zooming around a bit too fast for the conditions (and his skills) and had zoom-zoomed off the road sideways and had whacked a curb with enough force to bend the back wheel in about 30 degrees. Instead of sitting tight and waiting for a tow truck, Mr Numbnuts was trying to drive home with his mate following along behind with the blinkers flashing.
I've driven a car with a deflating back tyre and I know how wobbling the damn things can get when the tyres are not as they should be. But imagine trying to drive with a wheel bent halfway to the horizontal in the pissing rain. The poor little car was crabbing sideways and the driver was obviously having a hell of a time keeping it in one lane. I was glad I got past without him zipping into my lane for a bit of metal crunching.
You can pass a test and be issued with a license, but you can't be issued with common sense.
I had a bad case of the sweaty palms yesterday not far from home. I was sitting at a set of lights, waiting for the light to go green so I could hang right. Up in front of me there was a car pulled over in the left hand lane - again, a two lane road. It's a busy road, with traffic barrelling along at 80km/h, which is way over the speed limit, but that's what people do. This silly woman had stopped to let her kid out so that the kid could have a chuck.
Since people are idiots, they'd come roaring up the road and only see her at the last minute, and then they'd try and merge into the lane next door. I was sure she was going to get rear-ended as I sat there unable to do a damned thing. The worst moment was when two speeding semi-trailers went past side by side and one had to slam on the brakes in order to avoid her and get in behind the other truck. I was sure I was about to see a story that would make the evening news.
Of course it would be tragic and heart rending and all that, but it was all caused by one persons stupidity. There are good places to stop and let your kid throw up and there are not so good places. If you are in a not so good place, the kid simply has to hurl in the back seat. No point in getting a few people killed just to save the upholstery.
I got home without hearing a loud crash, so I presume she lived to be stupid another day.
People are morons.
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