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That Did NOT Just Happen

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From georgiana, Featured Contributor
Posted on July 16, 2008

Tales from my daily commute.

I live in the Baltimore/Washington corridor and while the political maneuvering here may be intense, it's got nothing on what happens on and around the beltways, especially during rush hour. We have the same kinds of things everyone else does; crazily annoyed drivers, five mile backups to the Bay Bridge on Fridays during the summer and never ending construction. But I have seen a few things I haven't seen anywhere else.

We all have to deal with trucks as we drive, and by default the things that come off the back of those trucks. My windshield has been chipped by flying gravel and I know someone who had a bad scare when a chair fell off the back of a pickup stuffed with furniture. But sometimes trucks can be a problem even when the contents stay put. That's what happened the day my oldest son and I got stuck in traffic behind a hay truck on fire. Now don't think the engine was on fire because it wasn't; it was the load of hay that was burning merrily with flames licking up the entire load and reaching several feet into the sky. My immediate concerns were the smoke and ash that was trailing behind the truck and into our car, the possibility of the flaming hay coming loose and landing on us, and, possibly because I've seen too many movies, concern that the flames would reach the gas tank and explode the truck and everyone in close proximity. We were hemmed in by cars, which were all honking and trying to get the driver's attention, so escape was difficult. I finally managed to get into the other lane and when we pulled even with the truck my son yelled out his window until the driver looked at him. Once the driver understood what was going on he pulled over and we left him behind, hoping that he had a fire extinguisher.

Several years ago I was very late getting home when traffic was delayed for five hours in the Annapolis area because of two car accidents and a loose cow. The minor crashes had already slowed things down to a crawl when a cow escaped from the home of a local doctor and got onto route 50 where it played tag with the cars for quite some time. A state police helicopter was called in to help try and herd the cow (it's like they'd never even heard of a cowboy) and in the end the cow was tranquilized, roped and delivered safely home again. A police car was damaged when the cow kicked it, but did not require any immediate medical attention.

More frightening than the fire or the cow were the two, count them two, black vehicles stalled in the middle of the road at night. Neither one of them had their flashers on nor a flare or even the dome lights lit. One of them was smack in the middle of the Washington Beltway, in the center lane, around one in the morning. I've no idea how I managed to spot it in time to swerve around it and I'm quite lucky that I wasn't hemmed in by traffic on either side of me. The other vehicle was worse for me; it was a black pick-up that skidded on some ice and was left sideways blocking the entire entrance ramp of highway 50. That particular entrance is a cloverleaf so visibility is dicey at best. In the middle of the night the black vehicle was extremely difficult to see. I avoided it but hit the same patch of ice and ran off the road. Thankfully nobody was injured and my own truck didn't even notice so it turned out all right but I was quite frightened.

What's the most ridiculous, frightening or just plain annoying thing you've had to contend with during your daily commute?

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georgiana is a featured contributor for vLane.