BSB Concert
On my way back, I encountered an angry 'old folk' driver. Here is the story, I was stuck with several vehicles at the right-most lane of a 3 lane road. It is 2 directional lane(It can go straight or turn right). The vehicle that wanted to turn right, switched on his indicator light too late so the vehicles behind all started to try to move to the middle lane. I did the same thing and moved out when I saw it was clear. At the same time a vehicle on the left-most lane decided to move to the middle lane too and came in from my blind spot. I braked immediately when I spotted him as he came into my vision. He did the same thing too then moved on as most of his vehicle was already on the lane so he had the 'right of way'.
From then on, strange behavior from the driver surfaced. He slowed down his vehicle when mine was behind his. He was trying to look at my face and probably my vehicle plate number as well. I think he wanted me to know that he was staring at me through his rear mirror. I flashed my head light on him as the traffic lights were about to turn red, I did not want him to cause all the vehicles at the back to wait for another round of traffic lights to turn from red to green. I think he acknowledged as he increased his speed after staring at me for 1 more second. I had the chance to bypass him at the next junction and saw that he is an 'old folk'.
This reminded me of an incident that happened soon after I got my driving license. It happened on the road just outside my house. 1 of my neighbors wanted to drive into his house's driveway so he turned on his indicator light and stopped his vehicle. I was behind him and seeing what he did; common sense told me that he wanted me to overtake him which I did.
After about 10mins an old folk pressed my house's alarm and I walked out to the gate to see what he wanted. He asked angrily if I was the driver of the vehicle. After I said I was, he immediately accused me of reckless driving and wanted to call the traffic police to revoke my driving license!!! That is ridiculous!!! I tried to reason with him out of respect, because of his age but he simply did not want to listen. It seemed to me that he wanted me to beg him not to call the traffic police. Seeing that he was using 'generation gap' to his advantage, I told him that I would go to his house with my dad after he returned from his work. He started to get even angrier and used profanity if I re-called correctly, so I simply just ignored him and returned to my house.
Since the common factor of these 2 incidents is the 'old folk' drivers. It got me thinking that why they had such a reaction. They could drive so, that means their health should not be a factor. I believed that they should be retired as well, judging by their age so it was not due to work. It definitely had to come from their family. Did their sons and daughters ill-treat them? Anger built up if they did not even have the chance to lecture their sons and daughters, or they chose not to. That anger would instead be directed to innocent people.
These are the things that come up to my mind...... I just hope their anger is not high enough to curse and swear. From the old saying, 'It is not good to be curse or swear by old folks. It will bring bad luck.' :|
1 other thing, my gf and I saw the aftermath of an accident while I was sending her home after the 'old folk' driver incident. It consisted of 3 vehicles colliding against 1 another at a traffic junction. The last vehicle at the back was a taxi. I am sure all the people who saw it will definitely think that it was caused by the taxi. The driver must be too busy looking at the side of the road for 'business' instead of looking at the front so he could not brake in time when the 1st 2 vehicles braked for red light. It collided first with the 2nd vehicle and the impact rippled down to the 2nd vehicle to collide with the 1st. Well, guess I will not be able to find out if my hypothesis is correct.
posted by Estan @ 12:41:00 AM (GMT+08:00).
