What a drive into work. Accidents are never fun.

I decided to shoot down Roosevelt this morning because traffic was so bad on 290/Eisenhower. There’s a good portion of Roosevelt where it’s technically only one lane, but those people you hate so much try to pass on the right side and then cut people off further down. Well apparently, one guy in a Lexus was determined to be a savior this morning and was hanging to the right so nobody could sneak down the shoulder. As it would happen, he was right behind me.

Well I guess some guy in a red pickup got really upset about not being able to be an idiot and cut everybody off and started in with a severe case of road rage. I started hearing honking behind me, and then I saw the red pickup swerve in behind me in front of the Lexus and start shaking his fist at him. They went back and forth for a little bit, and then the pickup slammed on his brakes and they both just sat there for a while. Happy that I could continue on and avoid that mess, I started paying attention to what was in front of me again.

Unfortunately, they caught up and were still playing road rage with each other. Once Roosevelt opened into two lanes, the Lexus swung into the left lane in a further attempt to tell off the pickup. When that didn’t work because of traffic, the Lexus swung back in behind the pickup and honked at him again (and probably some other obscene finger gestures, but I couldn’t see). Next thing I know, the guy in the pickup starts opening his door. As the light turned green and I drove away, all I could see was the guy getting out of his pickup. Again, I was just happy to not be in front of those tools.

Then I’m sitting at a stoplight when who do I see in my side mirror, but the red pickup shooting up the yellow line in an attempt to get into the left-turn lane. As fate would have it, somebody was trying to pull across traffic to turn left and was inching their way through the stopped traffic at the light - I’m always scared when I see people do this. As the pickup passed by me, I saw the other car inch out more into the left-turn lane and a few seconds later I heard a loud thunk as the two cars collided.

Some part of me couldn’t help but feel a little gleeful that Mr. I’m-so-tough-I’m-going-to-get-out-of-my-car-and-yell-at-you got his just desserts. I just feel bad for the poor guy that was trying to pull out. Oddly enough, there happened to be a patrol car right nearby and as soon as the accident happened, he pulled by me. I felt like warning the officer that the guy had a serious case of road rage, but he’s probably got enough problems now.

Update: A co-worker informed me that said pickup driver was seen being cuffed at the scene shortly after the incident.