To the Female Driver Who Nearly Killed Me on Friday, the Thirteenth
What could have been, but (thankfully) wasn't _____________________ |
“Patience is not simply the ability to wait
– it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.”
– Joyce Meyer
_____________________
On open letter to the female driver who nearly killed me...
You, going east on
Route 30 in your snazzy blue and white striped Camaro, ran a red light as my
husband, westbound, was making a left turn onto North George Street from Route
30 (York, Pennsylvania), almost T-boning the passenger side of our car, missing
by inches.
Where
I was riding.
Had
my husband not sped up, God knows what might have happened.
Serious
injury for sure, perhaps my death.
It
was Friday, the 13th, June 2014 – in my case, a lucky day and a driver (my
husband) with excellent reflexes.
As
my husband carefully navigated around a disabled car stuck in the left-turn
lane and nudged into the intersection, the traffic light had just turned
yellow, so I know that your light was still red because of the green light delay
built into the Route 30 traffic light system.
You
were on your mobile phone, obviously oblivious.
What
were you talking about that was so important? Your grocery list? The latest
celebrity gossip? Checking up on a child? Yakking to a friend? You mean you couldn’t
pull over to place or accept your call? How about waiting until you were in a
safe place to place or answer a call?
I
could rant about your being a stupid careless bitch who put your own selfish desires above the public good, but, instead, I would like to tell you what your moment
of stupidity could have meant to me and my family – you know, put a face on a
tragedy that, thankfully, did not happen.
Let’s
assume that I had been seriously injured, not killed.
I
would have been rushed to York Hospital, possibly paralyzed for life, most
certainly with massive internal injuries to my right side and multiple broken
bones.
No
doubt, I would have had to endure months, perhaps years, of physical therapy
and pain, my entire life devastated and changed in significant ways.
Had
I been killed, your selfishness would have taken away a wife from Jerry, mother
from Eric, and a grandmother from Victoria, Rhia, Lily, and Holly and leaving a
hole in several lives beyond my immediate family.
If
you are so inclined, you can read more about my life in this updated “eulogy”
(a truncated life story) – not that you give a damn, but that’s okay. I certainly can live the rest of
my life without your affirmation. In my mind, you’re just a another careless
stranger to be avoided.
If
none of those scenarios moves your princess posterior, then how about the
inevitable charges against you (for example, involuntary manslaughter and using
a mobile phone while driving, now illegal in Pennsylvania) and the ensuing civil
lawsuit? Because whether I would have been injured or killed, you and your family
and your insurance company would have been sued, and you would have been tied
up in court for years.
Worse
yet, you and your passenger could have also been injured or killed; you might
have been trapped by your own hot engine, still running – not a pretty sight.
For
now, you get a do-over, and for that I am thankful.
You
get to walk away without being arrested and dragged through the court system,
and I get to live my life, alive and uninjured.
I
hope you were as shaken up as I was and that you will think twice about yakking
on your phone while driving.
For
the rest of my readers: please do not talk and text on your phone while behind
the wheel.
Please,
just don’t.
Nothing
is that important, nothing that can’t wait for you to pull over into a safe
place.
Your
fellow drivers thank you.
I
thank you.
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated by admin.
Due to high volume of spam, only Google account holders will be allowed to post.