BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)

Subject: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 11:19 AM

While driving on a five lane road coming up on an intersection with a 8 lane cross street I took the left lane with the green arrow ahead indicating my left turn up ahead. The 2 lanes to my right were stopped for their red light when a car sort of rolled out of the driveway of a gas station on my left across 2 lanes and then right in front of me.

To avoid a T bone crash I swerved to the right while braking to the floor. BumP! I hit the rear bumper of a car stopped in the far right lane waiting for the light.

I got out and asked the slow rolling driver why he did that. He agreed to pull into another the gas station ,which had been the one in which the DC sniper had killed a customer and a gunman had murdered a clerk jus several months ago.

He could not remember his phone number after 6 attempts so I looked at his license. His birth date was 05-08-01.

He was Asian and looked like Bhudda without a single wrinkle.

While I was only going 30mph I probably saved his life by not hitting his car between the wheels.

Still a virtually blind 104 year old driver will probably take some one else with him if he continues to drive.

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Amos
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 11:57 AM

For a minute I thought he was a four-year-old!! Wow -- your karma is really going places, Donuel!! Learn what he has to teach!! :D

A

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 12:14 PM

He lives nearby in Leisure World, a retirement village. Honestly he doesn't look a day over 60. English is not his strength but I have friends who can translate.

The police referred me to the MVA medical advisory board to report his driving behavior. Should one take Bhudda's license away? For that matter I suppose he could be sued for the thousands of dollars of damage to 2 cars.

If you meet Bhudda on the road...

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Amos
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 02:41 PM

Hell, get your cars fixed and leave him be. "If you meet the Buddha on the road, swerve!!"


A

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 03:36 PM

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: MarkS
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 05:40 PM

Might be a good idea to go forward. The next time this fellow is involved in an incident, the drivers might not be as lucky as you were. My wife serves on the local volunteer ambulance squad, so she has front row seats to all the accidents. We really have an appreciation for just how hurtful inattention and driving incompetence can be.
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 06:21 PM

Someone needs to do it, Donuel. Might as well be you...think of the lives you could save. I have a friend whose 91(?) year old aunt regularly drives from NYC to Boston and back. She is oblivious to other traffic, signals, etc. She is an active, well-respected artist and teacher whose friends and fans in NYC probably have no clue about how dangerous she can be on the road. She doesn't ever drive in the City. My friend and the rest of her family cringe whenever they hear she is taking a trip. They feel the weight of possible victims and know that sometime, soon, they will have to do something.

Besides that, wha is Buddha doing driving? Isn't he supposed to walk everywhere with a begging bowl?:-)

Namaste!

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 11:19 PM

Mark, kat,

My neighbor is of the same mind as you.

I believe I would gracefully surrender driving at 104.

Hell I've surrendered a lot already.

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Peace
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 11:26 PM

I see enough car crashes in the course of a year that I would suggest you inform the authorities, Don. You missed being t-boned, and that is way far nasty. Next time it might be a mom with her infant or child. It's bad enough taking adults outta wrecks. I won't go into the bad dreams after taking kids out.

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 08:09 AM

I don't envy you, brucie. :-(   Here's an idea - how about training our cops to pull over everyone who looks over say, 70, on a regular basis, just to keep tabs on 'em - like they do to young guys under about 25?!? There's nothing more stressful than being stuck behind a senior who obviously can't see the signs, or the lines on the road, or even the traffic conglomerating around them as they mosey merrily along, oblivious to the fact they're doing 30 km below the speed limit!

I can't count how many times my sons say they've been pulled over ... about nothing, really. And this AFTER they've forked out insurance premiums about 6X higher than anyone elses!   Hmmm ... I've told them if they'd just turn the bass down and wear their baseball caps with the visor to the front they'd probably attract less attention ...

Yet there's times I've been grateful for that attention. Like last week, driving home from Alberta with my 23 yr old son. He's a good defensive driver, just a little heavy on the gas pedal at times - which isn't much of a problem on the prairies. At Calgary, you set your cruise for a reasonable 16 km over the limit, set your wheels for straight ahead, relax, close your eyes and WHOOOOOOOSH .... there you are in Winnipeg!!! :-)

But it's different on the TransCanada around Lake Superior, believe me!   All those curves and cliffs and grades and transports ... I had my heart in my mouth from Kenora to Kakabeka Falls, letting him drive.   (slow down ... SLOW DOWN!!! Yes sMother .... relax, sMother ....)   

Well, the next morning the OPP came to my rescue. Not 20 minutes after we'd started off ... just after my second sMothering "SLOW DOWN! This ain't the 401!!" ... flashing lights in the mirror.   HA!!!   I think that cop was an angel in blue! Reduced his fine from 29 km over to 15, $50 fine and no points lost - but it humbled him a little. And about 15 minutes later we passed a horrible wreck. A truck loaded with fresh Lake Superior fish had somehow careened off the highway, climbed about 30' up a rocky cliff and tipped over spilling it's odorous load all over. The drivers side looked ok, but I was praying for whoever might have been in teh passenger's seat - not good not good    :-(   

Between that sobering sight and that well-timed rap on the knuckles from the OPP, I was relieved of the necessity of any further sMothering vigilance for the rest of the trip.   YESS!!

Anyway, thanks for the chance to tell my story! And since I'm on a folkie site ... y'all get yer eyes checked now, y'hear?? Maybe yer ears too    ;-)   

or rather       ;~)    

(just want to be sure y'all can see it)

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Peace
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 06:23 PM

Ya know, if ya tilt yer head to the left, that red thing looks just like a face.And if ya tilt yer head to the right, it looks like either a mushroom growing betweena sleeping semicolon or a dot with another with the fuse lit holding an unbrella. Strange. Very strange.

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: jacqui.c
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 06:36 PM

I worked for a lot of years as a motor injury claims negotiator and would report this man in a heartbeat if I was in your position, Donuel.

If he manages to kill someone next time and you get to find out would you be able to forgive yourself?

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 08:48 PM

His name is probably the strangest I have seen:
Maudi Tjoie Hendricus Ranti 5-8-1901

He could not recall his phone number the same way on 6 attempts but here is the similarity... 948 9666 549 9666   498 9666

My letter to the medical advisory board will be signed and sent. I was told that it will be followed up in less than 10 days after they receive it. One letter however is not a deciding factor, it takes relatives to intervene. If they do not or can not then there is a retesting procedure that might be done. Anyway one complaint is not a slam dunk.

------------------------------------------------------------


The anecdote to the accident that was most upseting involved a woman, who was next to the young lady's car that I hit. She anxiously volunteered to be a witness to the whole thing. It was a mitvah for her to speak with the young lady whose bumper I hit and for her to call the police on her cell phone.

However when she started calling a lawyer she knew from Temple and kept asking if she could please call an ambulence just in case someone was injured in this 2 mph bump, and scrutinizing all my personal information that I handed to the young lady.

This lady was totally shocked when I said I also had the elderly gentleman's information as a witness. You see she had no idea that he was even involved. All she saw was the front of my car stop beside her passenger door. I had gone from the green arrow turning lane and stopped all the way over to the right hand lane in less than 4 car lengths.

The young lady had called her dad to bring some insurence cards and arrived pleasantly and courteously.

I asked the annoying lady what her involvement was any longer in this matter and she said "I saw you flying mister. Why on earth where you speeding when we are all stopped at a red light!? You would have hit me if you hadn't hit her. I've seen enough speeders cause accidents to nail you good. Why where you speeding when everyone is stopped at the light!"

I simply said I was going 30 mph and left it at that since she had obviously seen nothing and had more adrenaline than the rest of us put together. Her 2 kids suddenly chimed in chanting 'You Where Flying You Where Flying...'

The father of young woman got an earful from the witchy lady before she left. I owed no explaination of the circumstances to the kvetch but I did to the father. We waited some more but drove away with polite wave good byes.

The police never showed up after 45 minutes,

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 08:52 PM

PS the Bhudda was also driving with a front passenger flat tire.

Subject: RE: BS: fender bender or (I should live so long)
From: Amos
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 08:58 PM

I think, on reflection, that you did the right thing, Donuel, Buddha or no Buddha.


A