This is Steven Petrick Posting.
I headed into the office today, and as I was driving up I-27 to get to Amarillo I was passed by a tractor hauling a load of cattle. Not unusual. It was followed by a second tractor also hauling a load of cattle. I was on cruise control and doing perhaps a mile or three above the posted limit according to the speedometer. Not unusual. The second tractor did not finish passing me, but flanked me for a mile, perhaps less.
Apparently this interval was sufficient time for the driver of the second tractor to forget I was there. He moved into my lane.
Fortunately, there is a wide median along this stretch of I-27, almost a lane in and of itself, which provided me sufficient space to dodge and brake.
I will admit that at first I thought he was just drifting out of his own lane, and he was well on his way over before I suddenly realized that he no longer knew I was there. If I had accelerated after he had started to pass me, I would accept that I was to blame, but I was on cruise control at a steady speed. He overhauled me from behind and apparently just wanted to stay in trail with the other cattle transport. But if I had also been inattentive . . . well it probably would not have been fatal, but it would have been messy.
Not the only time I have found myself almost forced off the road by another driver. At one point driving to Origins a few years back, just outside of St. Louis (on the Missouri side) we were passed by a pickup truck in a hurry. So much of a hurry that he had forgotten he was hauling a long trailer. That was far more dangerous as there was about (if memory serves) a ten foot drop off on that side of the road, and if the trailer had hit us . . . we would have gone over. There was also traffic behind us, leaving very little room to brake and swerve enough that the trailer did not hit us, but not so suddenly that the vehicles behind us hit us or each other.
It is not just vehicles these days. A week or so ago I was on my way back from the post office. I had just changed to the right hand lane because there was no traffic in it as I was approaching a red light. The light changed to green as I changed lanes, so I switched from deceleration to acceleration. Suddenly, the passenger side door of an SUV opens and out steps a 16-20 something female who promptly walks into my lane of traffic. The brakes on my car work, but I asked Leanna if she heard them they screamed so loudly. I stopped maybe five or six feet from this female, whose reaction was to stare at me as if this was somehow "my" fault. She then turned around, got back in the SUV and it drove off.
I headed into the office today, and as I was driving up I-27 to get to Amarillo I was passed by a tractor hauling a load of cattle. Not unusual. It was followed by a second tractor also hauling a load of cattle. I was on cruise control and doing perhaps a mile or three above the posted limit according to the speedometer. Not unusual. The second tractor did not finish passing me, but flanked me for a mile, perhaps less.
Apparently this interval was sufficient time for the driver of the second tractor to forget I was there. He moved into my lane.
Fortunately, there is a wide median along this stretch of I-27, almost a lane in and of itself, which provided me sufficient space to dodge and brake.
I will admit that at first I thought he was just drifting out of his own lane, and he was well on his way over before I suddenly realized that he no longer knew I was there. If I had accelerated after he had started to pass me, I would accept that I was to blame, but I was on cruise control at a steady speed. He overhauled me from behind and apparently just wanted to stay in trail with the other cattle transport. But if I had also been inattentive . . . well it probably would not have been fatal, but it would have been messy.
Not the only time I have found myself almost forced off the road by another driver. At one point driving to Origins a few years back, just outside of St. Louis (on the Missouri side) we were passed by a pickup truck in a hurry. So much of a hurry that he had forgotten he was hauling a long trailer. That was far more dangerous as there was about (if memory serves) a ten foot drop off on that side of the road, and if the trailer had hit us . . . we would have gone over. There was also traffic behind us, leaving very little room to brake and swerve enough that the trailer did not hit us, but not so suddenly that the vehicles behind us hit us or each other.
It is not just vehicles these days. A week or so ago I was on my way back from the post office. I had just changed to the right hand lane because there was no traffic in it as I was approaching a red light. The light changed to green as I changed lanes, so I switched from deceleration to acceleration. Suddenly, the passenger side door of an SUV opens and out steps a 16-20 something female who promptly walks into my lane of traffic. The brakes on my car work, but I asked Leanna if she heard them they screamed so loudly. I stopped maybe five or six feet from this female, whose reaction was to stare at me as if this was somehow "my" fault. She then turned around, got back in the SUV and it drove off.
posted by Federation Commander at 3:53 PM
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