July 25, 2001
Almost got to witness a pretty good-sized accident on the way home from work, and I wouldn't have even been part of it. Well, not initially.
I was on Second Avenue, stuck behind a mini-pickup stuck behind a van stuck behind a Neon. A largish Dodge truck decides he's sick of us slowpokes and guns it into the right lane to go around us. He round the curve by MetalTech and finds a car with its four-ways on. Most people would be able to stop in plenty of time, but this guy was doing 70 at a minimum.
He slams on the brakes and starts to fishtail a little. He manages to get that under control, then tries to swerve into the left lane. Problem is, the Neon's there. The guy gets stopped in time, pitching the nose of the truck forward quite a bit, with his front left corner protuding into the left lane.
Us "slowpokes" were all doing 50, so we ain't excatly stopping on a dime ourselves. Each of us swerve into the dead lane (you know, there could be a lane there, but it's criscrossed with yellow paint) to get around him and continue on our way. Some more traffic passes the idiot and he finally gets out from behind the car. At the light for 29th St., he goes flying by again, and swerves into the left lane just in time to head up the hill into Greenfield.
Proof positive that being born in Pittsburgh renders one incapale of driving normally.
