See that traffic lane between the yellow lines? It’s called a center turn lane and it should be used only when a driver is ready to make a left turn. It should not be used as a driving lane. I repeat, you should only use it to get out of the busy lane of traffic when you want to make a left turn. Should be common sense, right? Well, yes, if common sense was a requirement to have a driver’s license. But apparently it’s not, and that’s how many accidents occur.

Like this one, that caused $4,000 in damage to my beautiful truck. I signaled to get into the center turn lane, and yes I saw the oncoming car a ways back in the same center turn lane. But it was a center turn lane after all, and despite the fact the car didn’t have its signal on, I figured it was preparing to turn. It was a center turn lane after all. Did I mention that already?

Unfortunately for me, the car was not turning and kept coming at my vehicle, which also was now in the center turn lane. Rather than have a head-on collision, I opted to make an “evasive maneuver” — I went back into the lane of traffic from where I had come. Of course, the much bigger Chevy Tahoe behind me did not expect that and rear-ended my truck. The impact was minor, and thankfully, no one was hurt. Even the trucks sustained fairly minor damage, but of course, the police had to be called and it was a major inconvenience for those involved.

I felt badly for the other driver, whose vehicle had little more than a dented hood. She was on her way to pick a child up from daycare, so she needed to make a call to take care of that. But she was very good about the incident and even told the police officer what happened with the other vehicle, which never did stop, by the way. “The other driver was using the chicken lane (that’s what she called the center turn lane) as a driving lane. It was either hit that car head-on or do what she did” and pull back into the traffic lane. “She didn’t really have a choice. I just couldn’t stop in time to avoid hitting her truck.”

So, I lost the game of chicken, and in the process, took another driver down wirh me. And the stupid driver who used the center turn lane as a driving lane (if I was Stephanie over at Stephellaneous.wordpress.com/, I’d be using a much stronger word to describe the driver!) got away as though nothing happened.

Like I said, no one got hurt, and that’s the important thing. Vehicles can be fixed. And that’s what I have insurance for, right? But it ticks me off that people drive stupidly and cause needless accidents–and then don’t even have the courtesy to man up to their mistakes. Jerks.