Oops!!!

have you even heard the saying that it doesn't pay to be nice? I always thought that was really dumb - of course it pays to be nice...

So - here's what happened to me today.

This morning I was driving to the grocery store, and there was a line of cars stopped at the red light ahead. I noticed that on the right side of the road, a vehicle was waiting to make a left turn out of the gas station. I really do try to be a considerate driver, so when I stopped for the light, I left plenty of space in front of me for the car to pass through.

The driver seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, and he started out across the 2 lanes of traffic. (I was in the right lane). The driver was looking to the right and he drove out. As he did, I saw that another car was coming up (pretty quickly) in the lane next to me. (the road is a 4 lane highway, 2 lanes going each direction with a turn lane in the center) I started waving my arms at the driver crossing in front of me, to warn him to stop, but he never looked my direction. He never did check to the left to see if anything was coming in 2nd lane, and hence he never saw me flailing my arms at him. He rammed right into the oncoming car.

I guess I should have honked at him, but my reflexes didn't work that quickly. (to be honest, it all happened really fast and I don't know that it would have helped anyway.) I know it's not my fault, (he SHOULD have proceeded slowly to the point in front of me, and checked for cars coming in the next lane,) but I still felt really bad. I expect that if I had not left the space, he would have been annoyed at me for blocking him in. However, that would have been better than him crashing.

So - to the man in the red jeep like vehicle, and to the driver of the other car he crashed into - I am SO sorry. I'm not sorry that I left you the space, but I AM sorry you had an accident. I wish I had been able to think fast enough of a way to prevent it....

I'm glad no one got hurt...