Holy Shit

We almost killed someone Friday night. It was nowhere near our fault either. That’s the scariest part. I’m not sure what that woman was on, or if she just wasn’t paying attention, but we almost slammed into the back end of her car, something that would have surely killed her baby in the driver’s side back seat.
We had been heading out for a night on the town. Our friend M was in the front seat and I was in the back. The boy was driving. The boy had just completed a move into the left turn lane, signal and all. We were fully in the left lane and the turn signal was already off. There was a red compact in the lane next to us. She had her turn signal on to move into the right lane and seemed to be moving over in that direction. All of a sudden, without any warning, she swerved into our lane, cutting our truck off. The boy slammed on the brakes and swerved into the oncoming traffic lane. (No traffic coming thankfully.) We missed hitting her by inches. She really didn’t have any room to cut into our lane, but she did.
Thankfully the boy has quick reflexes and the truck has excellent brakes. Otherwise, we would have slammed into the back end of the car. We had been slowing down too, so that helped. Either way, it was bad. The scary part was that the other car continued on as if nothing had happened. We had been literally inches from hitting her, yet she didn’t stop or slow down.
We pulled up next to the car at the next light after making our left turn, as that was what she had done and was turning around. No reaction from her. It was then we noticed the car seat in the back. We really freaked out then. We couldn’t believe that someone would drive that recklessly with a child in the back seat like that. Our vehicle was easily twice the size of hers. There’s no contest as to who would have sustained the most damage.
If there had been oncoming traffic, who knows what would have happened. We may have swerved in the opposite direction, sacrificing the back of the truck. Anything to not hit someone else.
There was no way this could have been our fault. If there had been impact, the angle would have clearly showed that we were fully in the lane and the other car would have been at an angle.
Sadly, this wasn’t the first time it has happened and it won’t be the last. It was the scariest though. People in this town have a tendency to drive as if there aren’t any other people on the road. Lots of people don’t use turn signals and many people just cut you off. I remember one time I was driving down the street in the left lane of a 4 lane street. The cars in front of me were going rather slowly and the traffic to the right of me was basically pacing the other cars. No way to get around it. Suddenly, the car two cars in front of me decided to make a right turn, FROM THE LEFT LANE. There was no traffic light, they just saw a place they wanted to go. The traffic in the right lane was alert enough and was able to avoid an accident by turning into the parking lot. It was definitely scary though. No turn signal, nothing. Just a sudden right turn from the left lane.Most people in Austin really should take another driving course. Or get off their cell phones while driving. Something to make them realize that there are other freakin’ cars on the road! Don’t even get me started on the cyclists who don’t obey traffic laws, of which there are many. I need at least 2 hands to count how many I have nearly hit when they come flying out of a cross street with a stop sign that they didn’t stop at, and I had none. But in this city, who would be villainized for the accident? Not the bicyclist, that’s for sure.