Yesterday Jacob accompanied me to purchase some sheets for our "new" mattresses. On our way, motorcycles weaved in and out of traffic, sometimes taking some pretty foolish risks to get somewhere a few seconds early. I told Jacob that I was afraid that I would end up hitting a motor cycle here before I left. Ironically, today I saw Tim almost do that very thing.
We were driving from our new house to our old house to pick up some more things. Tim was driving the van, while I was in the sedan a little behind her. There was a motorcycle that had passed me in between us. When we got to our old subdivision, Tim turned left into the entrance. We drive on the left side here, so in the U.S. it would be equivalent to turning right from the right lane. The motorcyclist felt compelled to pass her at that very moment, and decided that the best way to do it was to pass on her left, directly into her turn. When I saw the guy pass inside her while she was turning, my stomach dropped for a second. Somehow the guy managed to swerve and Tim braked enough to avoid a collision.
I don't understand the guys thinking. He could have easily passed her on the right, or even slowed down a bit while she turned. Passing her on the left was just amazingly stupid.
When I picked Aleena up from school today, I was chatting a bit with her teacher and relayed the story to her. She told me that not too long ago, that her sister had done the exact same thing, but unfortunately had struck the cyclist, sending him flying through he air. Even though it was completely the cyclist fault, they paid him money just to avoid getting the police involved. Probably a good choice.
1 comment:
Idiot cyclists that pass on the left are killing themselves off. It's like Darwin's survival of the fittest. These are the idiots that don't "get it". Eventually they'll kill themselves all off and not be part of the gene pool. Though it may take another few thousand years unfortunately. If I have one gripe about Thailand that never goes away - it's the drivers. Absolutely don't know what in the world they're doing with their new vehicle because their parents didn't drive one or if they did - didn't know how to drive one either. It's bizarre to watch new drivers drive their new vehicles in the most dangerous ways... This country needs drivers education and serious restructuring of attitudes about driving. Notice anyone in a car, truck bigger than yours does what they want? It's the norm. Notice the huge double dump trucks don't slow down when cars are slowing in front of them or when a dangerous situation starts to develop? They honk their horns - like get the HE77 out of the way or we're all going to die.
That's the mentality here. Weird, yes?
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