close, too close
Howard, on host 68.155.24.250
Saturday, February 4, 2006, at 15:19:32
About a month ago I was cruising down I-95 near Daytona Beach, Florida, when a truck driver almost killed me. I managed to dodge the rear of his trailer as it swung into my lane. He would have had to be blind not to see that he lacked 20 feet being past the front of my car. Fortunately, my car is small and agile, so I gave him half of my lane and slammed on the brakes. There was another lane to my left, but it was full of cars going by very fast. My speed was 70, so theirs had to be 80 or more. Had the truck clipped my front, I would have spun into that lane of fast traffic and the result would have been a multi-vehicle accident with my car in the middle.
Stay with me, this gets worse. I think I attracted a great deal of attention with my horn, and I could see tire smoke from the cars in all three lanes behind me. It seems that everybody expected a pile up.
The offending trucker, probably noticed my wife writing down his license number and decided that he didn't want us to get the company name off the door. So he sped off at speeds approaching 90, before he got tied up in heavy traffic. That allowed me to drive up beside him so my wife could write down the company name and other information.
I sent the info to the Florida highway patrol.
My problem is that hours of searching on the internet failed to turn up Lorrenzo Cargo, Inc., Miami. I think it may be one of those independant companies with one truck, no website, no telephone, and no safety officer. Maybe they should be required to have a 1-800 number on the back. Those who do are much more careful about their driving.
Naturally, I would like to think that my skill and experience was what made it possible for me to avoid that accident, but luck was probably the major factor. Still, if I was one of those drivers who just looks straight ahead, oblivious to the other traffic, we might be dead by now.
It's really nice to be home. Howard
|