A case of the Mondays

Saw an accident this morning. Despite the length of my commute, this is the only one I actually saw happening. Worse yet, I could see it coming and there was nothing I could do about it.

I was waiting to get into the left hand turn lane on Rt. 60/83. Unfortunately, the turn lane was full, so the regular lane was now filling up with those of us waiting to turn. On the opposite side of the street, a small line of cars had developed, people trying to turn left into the Mundelein municipal building parking lot to my right. Rt. 60/83 has two lanes on both sides at this point. So while the inside lane of my side of the road was stopped, waiting for all of us lefties to get out of the way, the right lane on my side was moving just fine.

The driver of the mini-van in front of me was trying to be kind and allowed a space between herself and the car in front of her for those who were waiting to turn into the municipal building parking lot. I saw this and groaned. "Accident waiting to happen," I even muttered, never actually believing it would really happen because I'd seen this hundreds of times, always close calls. Like shave the paint off your passenger side door close, but no real contact.

Also, this particular thing is one of my pet peeves. It's dangerous. According to Illinois law, you are required to not block intersections and driveways as marked, otherwise no worries. People who, in trying to help, leave you the gap to pull across their lane and then the one next to theirs cause accidents because you, as the turning driver, can't see around their vehicle to see if anyone else is coming. I've even heard the police warning against doing this. You think you're trying to be nice, but then something like this morning happens.

The guy turning left into the parking lot edged out little by little, but he couldn't see around the mini-van. Finally, after inching forward several times, he decided to go for it...just as a bright yellow H2 came barreling down the open lane, after all there was no back-up in his lane, no reason to slow down.

No screeching brakes, no time. H2 mashed into the side of the sedan, spinning it sideways. Glass popped, that was the loudest and clearest thing I can hear, and it shot out from the sedan in this bright glittering arc. Sedan finally came to a stop when the back end collided with a sign for the municipal building. And holy sh*t, somebody's Monday just went to hell in a handbasket.

Guy in the H2 was okay, got out immediately, looking severely pissed. Guy in the sedan looked okay inside the car--probably because he was hit on the passenger side, thank God.

Whew. It was pretty awful, worse for them than for me, obviously. But how rare is it to be in a situation like that where you can see the bad thing coming so clearly, whole seconds before the two people who will be most affected are even aware that this day is anything but ordinary?

Do you think that's a small taste of what it would be like to be God, seeing the yellow H2 heading straight for sedan-guy, but unable to interfere--other than that tingling little warning that should have been sounding in sedan-guy's brain--thanks to free will? *shudder* Not a job I'd like, thanks.