When we were driving to see Mom in the hospital regularly, one time the tractor-trailer ahead of us was weaving side to side and over the line and back again.

It was a while before we were able to pass him, people were nervous passing him. It's a 3-lane major highway.

When we finally did, I looked up at him and he had his left knee bent, elbow on his knee and cell phone up to his ear. You'd think he was relaxing in an easy chair instead of driving a rig.

Hi Jazzy,

Your message ... is closer to home than I thought before I checked the writer!

Did the guy have another hand?

I can't believe how many pass me ... when I'm going at the speed limit ... plus, often crossing solid yellow lines to do it.

Death wish, I guess.

Trouble is ... things are so comfortable ... and routine ... and some boring, while travelling in a car, that we tend to think rthat it's going to continue that way, regardless.

And ... we get so used to doing what we want, without major repercussions (or only minor ones) that we tend to think that such is bound to continue, as well.

ole joyful

I saw a beautiful stag deer get hit on the freeway on my way home from work the other night. It made it safe across 4 lanes going north, three going south and got hit by a car on the on ramp. POW! I don't know what happened after that, if the car and driver were ok or not, but I'm pretty sure the deer didn't make it out alive.

We were traveling at 65 MPH outbound in the center lane on the Edens Expressway one afternoon recently when traffic braked to a sudden halt. About ten cars ahead of us in our lane one car had just been hit hard enough by someone in the fast lane to spin first car 180 degrees. No one appeared to have been hurt, but both cars had serious damage and traffic had to weave around them. Someone had pulled over on the right shoulder and was using his cell phone, presumably to report the accident. We congratulated ourselves that it had not happened to us, and that we were not in the resulting long backup.

Not five miles along the road, we observed the identical scene in traffic headed inbound! That must have happened slightly earlier, as the backup was already miles long. Police and ambulance were trying to reach the accident via the median shoulder.

But wait! There's more! The next morning the radio traffic reporter announced "an accident in the middle lane of the Edens, inbound" near where we observed the prior two accidents.

It made me think how easily all expressway traffic in the city could be tied up by just a few similar incidents.

I saw one reading a newspaper and another asleep at the wheel, eyes closed. Fools one and all.

Aw, drumming on the steering wheel? That's nothing. A few years ago, we were heading onto the beltway around Baltimore. Traffic was going in the 70 mph range, of course. I noticed the car in front of us driving VERY erratically. Told DH to be careful. He wanted to put her behind us, so passed her--I glanced over and discovered the problem was that she was driving 70 while READING what looked like a big heavy textbook!!! Oddly, previously on that same trip, I'd seen a guy driving on 295 in NJ who had a bunch of reports on the steering wheel, that he was going over.

I'd take someone on a cell phone or drumming on the steering wheel anyday over someone who is reading.

Oh, and there was one day, when I was leaving my neighborhood, and a car was making the turn into it? The driver had a cell phone in one hand at her ear, and a cigarette in the other, in her mouth. To this day, I'm not sure how she made the turn without hitting me (she really wasn't quite in her own lane at the time)

once again I75 was closed for an accident..they hadn't figured out what or who caused it, but 3 students from oakland U were in dire condition...they had been on the way to an event of some kind...

just wanted to add, here it is only october, and we're already seeing pot holes in se mi...don't know if they havn't had the crews to fix them (from last winter snows) or the rainy summer ruined the repairs...we've completely stopped using one major street in our area because of the condition...it's LESS than 5 years old, from being stripped and redone...