I never thought there would be a day that I would be driving through a red light. It happened this morning! Let me give you some insight into my driving habits.
I have had a driver’s license for over fifty years. The only infractions I have, in those years is a ticket for parking in a no parking zone and one while I was in Florida on business.
The first was at a hospital. I was rushing my wife to the hospital and stopped, near the entrance, in a no parking zone. She was ready to deliver. We did the registration, which took a couple of minutes and I went outside to move my car. It was ticketed.
It was a legit ticket, however; I decided to enclose an explanatory note, with my payment. I informed them that our baby was born, 10 minutes after I parked the car and it was their decision whether to cancel the ticket or keep the payment. They cancelled the ticket.
I had just arrived at my hotel, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and drove to a nearby pharmacy to buy a non-perfumed soap. They are quick to ticket in Florida. I had no change for the parking meter so I ran in, bought the soap and was out within two minutes. No I don’t rob banks. My rental car was ticketed. There was no meter person around. I have no idea how a person can write a ticket and disappear that fast.
Admittedly, I should have received more tickets, either for speeding or for making bad driving decisions. But, I am a careful driver. I don’t run red lights…and this is my story and I’m sticking to it.
About six months ago, we had lights installed at the end of our street, for which I’m thankful. A few days ago, I was making a left turn, on a green light and a pickup truck came directly through the red light. He was a few feet behind me so there was no chance of me being rear ended. I said to my wife, ” he came through a red light.”
Well, this morning, I was at the same light and making a left turn. It’s 8:15am Saturday morning and there is zero traffic. I stopped, looked left and right. There was no traffic so I made the left turn and my wife said, “you went through a red light.” I hadn’t even seen the lights. I was thinking about a sound coming from my rear brakes, when I reversed out of my driveway into a parking area in front of our house.
I looked in my rear view mirror to see if there was any police around. There wasn’t, however; I felt I should write this confessional post. I feel better now. Those senior years and the dust that gathers on the brain..
aarrrgh..I just typed two paragraphs and for some reason it wouldn’t publish..I lost it! Not my temper, what I had typed.
Am I having a bad day?
A person in a car, stuck his/her hand on the horn at me because I was pulling out of my driveway and had to cross in front of them. This person had made a right hand turn,through the lights and was well above the speed limit coming towards me. I stopped on my side of the road to see if he/she had a problem but they sped in the road. They know where I live so…
During the same trip, from picking up my wife, I was almost rear ended. The highways have added a left hand turning lane near a school and you have to keep right for the flow of traffic. I kept right but a person driving a pickup truck stayed in the turning lane and almost rear ended my vehicle. The markings are not highly visible so I can see where he/she may have thought they were in the right lane.
My wife asked me if I wanted to drive to the city. Not today…. The video below offers the correct way to turn right at a red light.
