I
suppose that when one drives as many miles on crowded freeways as I do, they’re
bound to see all sorts of iiiinnnnterrresting things. For me, this used to catch me off guard. Now I view it as a sort of privileged
game—oooo, I wonder what oddities I’ll come across this drive.
Over
the past few days, I’ve seen some strange sightings that I thought would be fun
to share. The first was something each
and every driver has probably wondered over happening to them but hopefully has
never had to endure.
Driving
along a crowded freeway and beginning a downhill decent, us drivers cruising at
full freeway speeds, I noticed the cars ahead suddenly decrease their speed and
move around erratically. Strange thing
was, no one slammed on their brakes and the swerving wasn’t isolated to one or
two lanes but rather spread its way across the freeway. Since I was behind the other drives and also
headed downhill, I had the vantage point of viewing what lay ahead. What I saw was troubling, intriguing and
impressive all wrapped in one tidy package.
There,
up ahead, was a compact car who’s hood latch had let loose. Only trouble was that the safety latch had
failed as well, so the hood was blown full force up against the driver’s
windshield and now partially folded over the top of the car, the hood’s hinges
forever bent in nonworking shapes.
Wow!
Much
to the driver’s credit, he didn’t panic but slowly decreased his speed,
surrounding cars following suit, and made his way from the second fastest lane
to the far right shoulder without being able to see what was in front of
him! And he did all this without causing
a single full or near accident.
Impressive!
A
couple of days later, I caught sight of another odd occurrence on the
freeway. Well…it wasn’t so much on as over the freeway. Up ahead
of me, I spotted a pedestrian overpass.
And there, centered on that overpass was a young couple in their early
twenties, resting. To sit upon, they had
brought two cumbersome plastic Adirondack chairs. And there they sat, seemingly on a date,
watching the traffic below them flow by.
Odd!
I
couldn’t help but wonder what had possessed them to do such a thing. I mean, there are plenty of other free
activities in which a young couple can partake.
But sitting in large chairs in the middle of a freeway over pass while
sucking up huge amounts of toxic car fumes just wasn’t something I would guess
to be at the top of their list.
Goes to show how little I
know…. LOL.
The
most recent strange freeway sighting I saw was today. No doubt each of us has found ourselves, or
others, driving along, oblivious to the fact that we’ve left our turn signal or
emergency flashers on. No big deal. But I’ve always wondered…what would happen if
a police officer, after pulling someone over, forgot to turn of their flashing
lights? I got to witness the effects of
such today.
Driving
along in the fast lane, the carpool lane to my left, I caught sight of a
motorcycle police officer making his way through the crowd of cars. I didn’t think much of it, aware that here in
California, it’s legal to split lanes if driving a motorcycle. That means, that a person on a motorized bike
can drive between two lanes even if they’re already occupied by surrounding
cars. This forces the rest of us to keep
an ever-watchful eye out for vehicles—motorcycles—that hadn’t been there a
second earlier but may have sped up on us between lanes.
As
the highway patrol officer got closer, I noticed he had his red and blue lights
flashing, indicating he was going to pull someone over. Fairly certain it wasn’t me, since I was
abiding by traffic laws, I inched over in my lane to give him more room to
pass. He did and then pulled behind and
of to the side of another vehicle a few cars ahead of me. There he lingered for
a short time. I figured he was waiting
for the driver to take notice, so they could be escorted to the side of the
freeway for whatever ticket they’d earned.
The
driver became aware and signaled to begin his move. That’s when things got strange. The officer then pulled past that car and
changed into the next lane over a few cars ahead. This time, the vehicle he lagged behind
caught on sooner and indicated they would cooperate and be pulled to the side
of the road. But again, the officer
zoomed up ahead a few cars and then changed to another lane.
Super strange!
This
process repeated over the course of the next few miles, during which several
off ramps came and went. The officer
never hurried, instead just kept pace with traffic. Then, as suddenly he’d appeared he calmly
made his way to the next exit, his lights still flashing.
Hmmm….
I
couldn’t help but wonder…. What does one
do in that situation? Pull up next to
the officer, roll down their window and say, “Pardon me. Seems you’ve left your lights flashing?”
Guess
I’ll never know, since no one did so and for all I know, the officer arrived
wherever he intended, lights still flashing and motorists around him believing
they were being pulled over…until…they found that they weren’t.
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