Last night on my way home I found myself behind a truck that had one of those stickers on it. You know the kind – it asks you how they are driving, has a serial number of some sort and gives you a phone number to call and report them. Typically I would hardly notice.
This truck was different. I only say that because I saw him three or four times in the space of about a minute. You wouldn’t necessarily think this is odd, but it was unusual, if only because he was doing circles around me. Don’t get me wrong – we were traveling in the same direction. He’d pass on the left, get in front of me, move to the right, fall behind, cross back to the left, pass again, move back to the right, etc.
So after about the third time he changed into my lane, I noticed that this was the same guy. He was on the phone while driving, which I can’t really fault because I had to be on the phone to call in his number. But the frequency with which this guy changed lanes was amazing. He couldn’t sit still. I don’t know if he actually cut anyone off, but it sure looked like it from where I sat. So I called.
After answering a bunch of general questions on the location, conditions, traffic and the like, we got to the meat of the story. The operator asked which lane I was in. I told her I had been driving in the middle lane (of three). She asked which the truck was in. I paused for a moment, then told her: All three.
I did take care to explain that he wasn’t weaving as if he were drunk, he was just changing lanes rapidly and repeatedly. She asked for my name, and I hesitated, as I am generally leery of leaving personal details with people I don’t know. She accepted my report, but I can’t help but feel it will be relegated to the back of the file since a real person wasn’t attached.
Maybe I should have given it to her.