This morning on my way to work I was stopped by a red-light (I hate when that happens!)… Anyway, I am in the front row position in one of the five lanes at a busy intersection facing North on a one way street. Since it was a one way going north there was no traffic coming South. I looked to the West and again to the East just watching traffic, waiting for the light to change. Then, I looked back North and all of a sudden, there was a car coming South — I didn’t see where it came from — luckily, it came to a stop at the intersection! The car and driver sat there for a few minutes — I can only imagine what he thought as he looked South to see 5 lanes a traffic ready to come towards him. Finally, he realized the predicament he was in, decided to turn right and went merrily on his way. He was lucky that no one was turning North from those who had green lights…
This incident reminded me of the days when I worked in downtown Davenport at a bank that was located on the corner of two one way streets – one going north and the other going east. Periodically, we would hear car horns bellowing and knew in an instant that someone had turned on one of the one ways going the wrong way. It happens more than we would want it to and some of the time it is harmless as it was this morning. We also hear about other incidents where lives were lost during head on collisions.
A friend of ours in St Louis was recently in an accident where someone was going the wrong way and they did hit head on — he has a few minor bruises and some cracked ribs and hurt his ankle, but is doing fine and hopes to be golfing this summer. He was very lucky indeed. So be careful out there people!
