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I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for this week's T Stands For challenge found here.
This is my summation of the past week:
Teddy will be serving double duty as my main image plus as my "T-Day ticket" for my T-Day posts.
A true story... "Panic on the highway" (sung to the tune of "Dancing In The Street")
Shortly after nightfall, as we headed southbound on Route 8 (RT8), approaching exit 12, ahead were the red brake lights of cars, indicating a traffic slow down / traffic jam. Hours earlier, the journey northbound included bumper to bumper traffic, so yet another stop and go trip was no surprise, as it is part of the normal "joys" of driving on any highway in Connecticut (CT), US.
Then the extraordinary began, as we passed that highway exit ramp. First, it was one or two vehicles, backing down the emergency lane of the highway, toward the on ramp. (Note: that is against the law to do in CT, and probably in most / all states.) As we inched along in traffic, suddenly more vehicles were moving into the emergency lane and proceeding to back up at dangerous rates of speed (almost like bats out of Hell). One vehicle, in its haste to start backing up, nearly side swiped a vehicle that was in its correct lane on the highway.
As more and more vehicles started doing that, this thought occurred to me: "What do they know, that we don’t know? What lies ahead? A rolling wall of flames that is incinerating all of the vehicles (and occupants) as it races northward? Godzilla? Aliens with ray guns? What in the world is going on?!"
The surreal scene of all of those panicking drivers, backing down the highway to get off of it (escape), truly looked like something out of a Hollywood Apocalyptic Event movie. And it was clearly, "Every man for himself!" so if there is ever a real, wide scale emergency situation going on, the last place you want to be is Connecticut, because you’ll be run over / trampled in the stampede to flee the area.
And what was actually going on, up ahead on the highway? The highway was closed due to an accident. Which is another standard occurrence on CT highways: any type of accident, no matter how minor: close all lanes of the highway. Yet never before have I witnessed that type of hysterical reaction by drivers. It was disconcerting to see at the time, but when I finally got home, the humorous take on it got me laughing.
Teddy said if we had a dash cam, we could’ve shared the video with everyone. (Teddy has been pestering me to get one for a few months now. He’s using this event as an example of how they can come in handy, for documentary purposes.)
17 comments:
My GPS has a dash cam but I have never used it.
Maybe those poor drivers stuck for hours in bumper to bumper traffic needed to use the facilities. At home! I'd fly down the exit ramp and make other illegal maneuvers at high rates of speed, too! 🎃 Teddy and his toys. First, he wanted the Apple 13 and now a dashcam. What next?
People have very little patience any more-but if one is stuck in traffic for a very long time going no where, people will do what they do-I agree with CJ many probably needed to use the facilities and just needed to get out of there.
Large congested areas and cities are no fun for sure. Happy T wishes Kathy
Ugh, I dislike traffic. One of the things I Love about living in a small town in a rural area is traffic for us consists of an extra 5-10 minutes but no more.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate
What a mess when an accident occurs on a highway! In PA they don't close roads for an accident unless there is a death or a major spill or concern of a vehicle fire. But accidents are unfortunately an every day occurrence mostly on the highways in our area. I think I'll stay in and sit with Teddy:) Happy T day!
Fun story, but not fun being stuck in queues of cars. People here behave very badly in such situations. Happy T Day to you and Teddy, Valerie
We look over a major highway with on and off ramps in our view. It is not uncommon when some other roads are closed for events, to see drivers backing down or turning around (also illegal here) on an on ramp. Such stupidity! This is worse than when an accident happens, they know ahead of time that the city has closed another major street for a charity marathon or other celebration.
Always scary when something happens to cause traffic to stop suddenly let alone start to reverse, thankfully you survived to tell the tale, I must admit I hate motorways in the US, all those lanes and you can overtake and undertake, undertaking isn’t allowed in England although some idiots do it!
Happy T Day
Jan
Wow I can't believe people were going backwards down the off ramp, that could've caused even more accidents. People are dumb, although as CJ said above, maybe they needed a rest stop in a hurry lol. Glad you were OK. Happy T Day! Elle/EOTC xx
That's quite a driving story. I never thought any highway could be as bad as 495 in Massachusetts. Although today it was fairly low traffic. It was a shock. I290 was worse. I'm sorry for your crazy ride, but it did make a god story. Hope it was a happy T day.
I want to know if Teddy enjoyed the Sip of Autumn. It has a catchy name at least.
I had to laugh at what CJ said about using the facilities. I hate waiting in traffic, too, and thankfully, we get very little of that in Wichita and on our KS highways. Los Angeles is another story altogether!
Thank both you and Teddy for sharing your tea and your tale of the highway with us for T this Tuesday. Sorry to read it was an accident, but Teddy needs that Dashcam, dear (grin)!
Glad you got where you were going and no scary Godzilla or anything (but think of the stories had there been one....maybe you should get that dash cam). It is funny you mention the traffic back up on the highway because ours are just like this these days. Craziness - we try to avoid them as much as possible. Unfortunately, the other way to our house is also the other way to go with the highway backs up so both are usually a mess. I am with CJ - I am thinking they all had to use the facilitites! I have been known to panick a time or two like that in similar circumstances...
Happy T-day to you and Teddy!
Wow! Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie ;)
Teddy is right about the value of a dashcam, or so I hear. It's not like I actually have one...
Ahhh so your mind races to the apocalyptic before know what is gong on. Hee hee hee me too. Glad you are safe.
Yes, my thoughts would have gone along the same lines. What do they know that I don't? I'm afraid I would have tried to do the same if the exit was near and I hadn't gone far beyond it. I wouldn't want to sit on a closed high way in between cars not being able to go anywhere. I'd feel claustrophobic and panicky. So illegal or not. That is what I would have done.
But I'm glad you got home safely without any Godzilla or apocalyptic event.
We haven't got a dashcam but it would have been interesting.
Sorry I'm late but as you regulars know, we are away on Tuesday, and today we had a power cut so I'm even later (It's nine pm)
A belated happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca
If one or two start using the emergency lane in a traffic jam, more will follow. But to do that after they had already passed the exit ramp? That is downright dangerous, and I have never witnessed behavior like that - not even in (sometimes) crazy California!
You had me at Teddy....Enjoyed reading this post and the motorway antics and I suspect your county (or country)is not alone with using the emergency lane...Christmas is coming Teddy, so pop on the dash camera when you write your letter to Santa....lol x.
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