"Around 5:30 last night, "
I've noticed that Friday afternoon rush hour traffic is the rudest. People have no patience with drivers who appear to be impeding their way home. And maybe with the deer season opener, people more even more anxious to get home and on the road up north than normal.
Dennis Tester Mac-Groveland
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Mons" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 11:00 AM
Subject: [StPaul] A disquieting experience
Around 5:30 last night, I had a traffic accident at the intersection of Snelling and St Anthony. (I was on northbound Snelling and turning left onto westbound St Anthony ... the other car was southbound on Snelling).
That was disquieting enough, but what really surprised (and disappointed) me was the reaction we received from other drivers immediately after the accident.
By way of background:
- My car was hit broadside by the other vehicle ... my car spun around and was partially blocking St Anthony just west of Snelling. It was completely off Snelling and in the middle of St Anthony with one car width open on the left and one car width open on the right around my car.
- As soon as we got out of the car (neither my passenger nor I was injured ... just shaken up), I moved the car off to the right hand side of St Anthony to wait for the police. The other car was on the right hand side of Snelling southbound and right by the curb. Both the other driver and I waited on the sidewalk for the police.
Now here are the disturbing parts:
1) Only one motorist stopped to see if they could help ... fortunately he also witnessed the accident and provided name and phone number. Everyone else on southbound Snelling who had been stopped immediately before the accident and the other vehicles on northbound Snelling who had seen the accident occur just drove on. The witness was on westbound St Anthony waiting to turn onto southbound Snelling.
2) Before pulling my car off to the side and while making sure that nobody was hurt, I escorted my passenger to a traffic island. Other drivers shouted out and honked at us for blocking traffic and for causing a delay. That happened immediately after the accident ... within a minute or (at the most) two minutes after the accident.
3) While trying to pull my car over, I got more honks, and more than one motorist vented with obsceneties and the classic one-fingered salute. Pulling the car over and out of the way proved to be difficult enough as cars were pulling around to the right of the car which is where I was trying to move it.
Frankly, I was surprised at the lack of helpfulness ... and more so at the anger and behavior as I was moving the car out of the way.
Rick Mons Tanglewood neighborhood of Shoreview
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