Tickets and Crashes

*Day 119*

So, it's been raining mud up here. My car is a mess. I haven't washed it because they keep talking about this big storm that's coming. I figured it would clean my windows or make them worse so I've put off washing the car. Today it's been snowing pretty good. My car is looking better, but the mud and snow haven't exactly made it easy to see out of some of my windows. When I almost ran into a pole in a parking lot today, I thought of what I could blog about. Traffic incidents.

I really haven't had many big ones. I got a fix it ticket once because my brake light was out. I was worried because I had no idea why I was getting pulled over. I knew I couldn't have been going too fast because there was a line of traffic at a red light when I came through. I was on my way home from work and was tired and kind of spacey, so I couldn't remember if I stopped at the light or not. I worried until I found out what it was about. No problem. I'm sure I got it fixed and checked out on the very last day I could before I had to pay a fine.

My freshman year in college, me and my roommates went to California for spring break. I was driving and got pulled over for speeding. He really grilled me about having a Utah license and driving a car with Idaho plates (my roommates). But, let us go with a warning. He scared me enough that I couldn't go over the speed limit after that. They finally made me stop driving. My roommate took a turn because it felt like we were never going to get there if we had to go my speed.

I was with my sister Lynn when she got her first ticket. I still see people all the time do what she got a ticket for, and I get mad at them for it. I'm pretty sure that even Logan knows this law because I will point out when people don't follow it. Lynn got a ticket for failure to yield on a left hand turn. It was pretty crazy. We were turning left onto Redwood Road off of 90th South. The light turned green and we were waiting for the car to go straight. We even had a conversation about whether or not to go. Lynn said, "I'm supposed to wait for them to go, but they're not going." We talked about what to do. Then, when they were still not going, Lynn made her turn. She got pulled over, and got a ticket. I really think we waited long enough to give them a chance. It's not like we were racing them to get through first like I see people do all the time.

I also got in an accident with my sister Sherry. She was driving. We were pulling into the bank. Traffic was backed up. The cars in the oncoming lanes stopped to leave a path for us to get through. Sherry started going, then a car came driving down the side of the road to get in the right hand turn lane. We got hit. On my door. It wasn't too bad. It seemed really slow. From where I was, it seemed like Sherry just froze. I remember thinking, why doesn't she just push on the gas really fast. It seemed like we had enough time to get out of the way. Sherry probably has a different version of the story. Our tan car had a maroon door after that.

I've only been in one thing that could be considered a car crash. It was in the parking lot of a gas station. We got our gas and I was backing up. I was watching behind me. My dad always told me to look back until I came to a stop. That's what I was doing. Really. I was actually thinking of my dad saying that when I heard this crunchy noise. A car was pulling up and my front end swung around and hit their bumper. Our bumpers were stuck together. We had to both back up to get them unlocked. It was a couple of guys in the other car. They were giving me some advice on what I could tell my parents had happened. I thought that was weird. I didn't think I had to lie to my parents. I really didn't think they would care. Actually, I'm not even sure I ever told them. There was just a scratch on the bumper. And, they knew when they bought the car that teenagers would being driving it. (Besides, it was nothing compared to what Eric did to the Comet.)

And those, my friends, are my most memorable traffic incidents.