Drivers Diaries

So the day started out on an interesting. I was taking Kelly to work and as we were traveling down Alpine, a tow truck started to pull out, turning left onto Alpine near Ann St. I was certain he was going to get in the left lane because there were two northbound lanes on Alpine. He started getting into my lane (the right lane) and Kelly yelled for me to look out. I was too close to hit the brakes, so I hit the horn and went up onto the curb to avoid a collision and only just missed doing so. At once I was angry. I got out of the car with the intent to do great bodily harm. As I walked toward the back of the car where the tow truck had come to a stop, I heard the driver pleading “I didn’t see you dude, I didn’t even see you!” I walked around the back of the car and looked to see if there was any damage and as I was getting ready to yell at this guy, I didn’t. I got back into the car. I sat there for a minute, thinking about what to do, got back out to say that I didn’t think there was any damage, but that I needed his insurance information. 

 I thought about this incident and came to the conclusion that, yes, the driver of the tow truck was at fault because he was not paying attention to what was in his path as he was cutting across four lanes of traffic, but I was also at fault because I assumed I knew what he was going to do and I must have been traveling too fast to stop in time. What I did do right was laying on the horn before he hit me and evaded the collision. Kelly said to me “good driving Benji!”, so that was worth it! She also said that she was expecting me to get out and yell at the other driver. I told her that I was too, and more. She said that she wished that I had and I asked her what good that would have done. No one was hurt; there was no damage. Best to not make a bad situation worse.

 I don’t think my heart rate changed during the whole incident. I was calm the whole time. That is due either to my meditation, mindfulness, or the 6mg of melatonin I took last night to sleep. Whatever it was, I am glad for it. I avoided an accident, a heart attack, and assault and battery charges.