A Senior Moment

I was in the car with my daughter the other day, approaching an intersection with a double left hand turning lane. We were turning left, in the right side turning lane, with a green light ahead.

Traffic was not moving for some reason and my daughter moved into the other turn and moved up, but now we had missed the green and were waiting for the red light to change, to an advanced green.

It was obvious the holdup had been one particular car, as the driver was stopped in the turning lane well before the intersection. Slowly he drove until he was even with us, supposedly waiting for the signal to go.

I told her to watch the driver in the other car. “He’s not going to turn,” I said. “He’ll go straight through the intersection.”

She didn’t believe me, because...duh...he was in the turning lane, why wouldn’t he turn?

Suddenly, he drove right through the intersection, shocking everyone, because the light was still red, but fortunately for him, and all the other drivers, the light for the drivers on the cross street was yellow and then red, so the intersection was basically empty.

I think the reason this elderly driver had stalled traffic, stopping before reaching the intersection is that the double turning lane confused him, and he was concentrating so hard on the lanes, he didn’t double check that the light had changed before proceeding into traffic.

He was fortunate that day, just as the rest of us were fortunate not to bear witness to an accident. This episode just adds further weight to why I don’t like to drive in strange places. I may not be as senior as that driver, but I have the slower reaction time that comes with MS and my brain can only deal with so much information, and decision making at one time. I’ll be more cautious when I drive, it was a good reminder.

Be Safe out there!