Friday, February 5, 2010

I Screamed For Life!

How can you prevent a panic?  Remember to double check your car gear!
The scariest incident happened to me on a parking lot, but I lived to share it.  I had just finished work one cold Tuesday evening and decided to get my prescription filled at a Target Pharmacy.  When I was leaving Target’s parking lot, I was almost ran over by a driver who was not so careful.  Imagine for a moment.  I’m standing between two cars.  My car on my right, and the other parked car on my left.  While I was getting ready to open my car door, all of a sudden, I hear a loud bang!  The parked car on my left rolled backwards because it was hit by a moving car that was in front of it.

Thank God I don’t walk in fear, but that loud bang incident scared the mess out of me!  The loud bang and my panic-scream afterwards got the attention of everybody who was in the area.  Everybody stopped dead in their tracks and turned around to see what had happened!  At that moment, I noticed the driver of the moving car had warmed-up his car and as he was ready to drive off, obviously, his car was in the wrong gear.

Shortly after I screamed and while everybody was looking in the direction where I was standing, a young man came out of the moving car.  Due to the loud bang, he had a panic look on his face as if he had damaged the parked car that he just hit.  We both looked at the parked car, and good thing there was no damage done.  I then heard him mumble these words, “Oh man! I had the car in Reverse instead of Drive!”  Right a way, I thought, it is so important to get this point across to new drivers.  Accidents happen, but learn to avoid this type, double check to see that you are in the right gear before you take off.  If the truth be told, it happens to most experienced drivers too.  Either they did not learn it or have forgotten to double check if they are in the right gear before they take off.

When I left Target’s parking lot that Tuesday evening, I thanked God for protecting me.  All kind of thoughts also went through my mind.  I thought to myself, it could have been my car that got hit.  Also, the hard hit could have had a ripple effect where the parked car could have rolled back and hit another car behind it and so forth, but thank God no other car was parked behind the one that got hit.

Hint:  To pass the road test, it is in your best interest to double check and make sure you are in the right gear.  Doing so may impress the examiner and assure him you are a careful and responsible new driver.  Was that young man careful?  What type of driver will you turn out to be?  Think about it!  Visit www.PaulinaAParker.com for more information.

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