Life as a Spectator Sport

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Saturday, December 03, 2005

Strange people on the road tonight

I'm not positive, but I think I almost got snookered into one of those insurance-scam alleged accidents tonight, on the way back from Richmond.

As much as I drive, it's a wonder I haven't had more problems. One minor accident--a rear-ender that was someone else's fault, and which caused no damage to me and minimal damage to the Jeep, that's all. Lots of near misses, but you can have those just driving to work every day. Other than those, until tonight, nothing.

I was somewhere near the Halifax County/Pittsylvania County line when, in the distance ahead of me, I saw a car parked partly on the shoulder and partly in the right hand lane, with its flashers on. I automatically moved to the left a bit. As I got closer, I could see a human figure in the car's headlights, and thought that perhaps they were changing a tire. So I moved all the way over into the left lane. Just as I came up to the car, a woman leaped out from in front of it, waving her arms as though to flag me down. I slowed down, but there wasn't room to park in front of her car. The shoulder--which was already too narrow for her car to be completely off the road--narrowed down even farther. And after hearing horror stories of people being killed or kidnapped or at the very least having their car stolen, I wasn't about to just pull over and stop anyway. But I did turn around as soon as I came to a cut through the median, and came back to see what was going on, safely on the other side of the highway. As it happened, I was on the phone with Kate, so I told her what was happening, with the idea that if I were snatched from my car and clobbered with something, she could at least call the state police and tell them approximately where I was.

I pulled into the median across from where the other car was parked and hollered, "What's the problem?" To my amazement, the woman screeched at me, "You f---ing hit me!"

I was so surprised that I don't remember exactly what I said back. Something on the order of "Huh?" Or "What?" Or maybe "Excuuuuse me?" At any rate, she yelled the same thing again, and added, "I know who you are!"

This was just a little too bizarre for me. I called to her that I had certainly not hit her, and begged her to excuse me for being concerned enough about her to have come back to see if anything was wrong. And then I drove on and called 911. By the time I got through to the proper county, and had turned around and driven back, the woman and the car were gone. I apologized to the Pittsylvania County 911 operator for having bothered her, and came on home.

Strange people out there tonight, and definitely something fishy going on.
posted by Liz @ 1:54 AM     |


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