Watch it when you drive
On the way home from Cape Cod this past weekend, we had a near accident that certainly would have changed what we would be doing this morning.
We were cruising on the fast lane on Interstate 495, somewhere near Middleboro, when I notice that the traffic in front of us was coming to a slow down. I slowed down leaving plenty of room between the cars. I didn't come to a stop, just went from 65 to about 35 in a fairly short distance.
As I was slowing down we suddenly heard behind us a loud breaking streaking sound. A sound that catches anyone attention, much like a police siren would. In my rear view mirror, I could see a red convertible coming up right behind me very fast.
The car veered off to the left side of the road partly hitting the guard rail and then coming onto the road in front of me. The car came to a stop in the dirt area between the guard rail and the fast lane. I am guessing that they were going about 70 mph and didn't notice the car in front of them was slowing down.
Luckily for everyone else the car didn't hit any other car. It looked like the car did get some scrap damage on the drivers side and it looked like the driver side mirror was hit. Had the driver not veered off our car would have gotten some serious body damage.
We didn't stop. None of the cars around us stopped or even pull over to see if they were alright. We were all happy that no other car was involved.
At first, I thought maybe to break lights weren't working on our car and that's why they didn't slow down, but they were checked only a couple of days ago. Also, no other car around us stopped suddenly. So this clearly wasn't our fault.
I was then concern that perhaps the driver would go after me in a road rage for causing damage done to his car. Perhaps in his worldview I did something wrong. So for the next ten miles or so I kept looking back to see if the red convertible was behind us. I kept looking. After a while, I figured that the driver must have pulled off the exit to get a better look at his car. After ten miles, he wouldn't have the ability to catch up. In addition, it went so fast that they wouldn't have had time to remember what car they almost hit.
So the moral of this incident is to always be watching what your doing when your driving. Don't always assume that the traffic in front of you is going the same speed as you are.