Yesterday wasn’t a fun day. For those of you who know, my beloved PT Cruiser has been on the wrong side of another vehicle a few times in her life. Yesterday was just another bad day, but with a construction dump truck.
I was leaving home to head to Mississauga. Heading towards Derry Road on Armstrong I was behind a large dump truck. The driver moved the truck over to the far left hand side of the lane but not seeing anything to indicate where he was going, I held back. He moved up closer to the line and stopped. Again there was no indicator. There was enough room on the right hand side where I could safely go through so I moved up a bit to look for traffic headed eastbound on Derry Road. Again, I glanced over at the truck and saw no indicator to show he was turning right. I moved up slightly and when the eastbound traffic was clear, I was ready to make my turn. Unfortunately, so was the truck and it ended up turning into my car on the drivers side from the back quarter panel to the front.
Long story short, no one was hurt except the car and a few disgruntled drivers behind us having to deal with a little more back up than normal.
With that being said, I urge everyone out there to exercise even more caution than normal when construction vehicles are involved. They are much bigger than most cars and things like this are becoming more and more the norm according to the police officers I spoke with recently.
On the bright side of things, it’s nice to see an increased police presence at the intersection of Yates and Bennett. For those of you who don’t know, there was a stop sign recently installed about 2-3 weeks ago. From that point on there have been several cars that have not stopped properly and / or simply ignored the signs entirely.
With our kids back to school and the good weather, it’s important we open our eyes a little wider and take care while driving.The police have been stopping people with a no tolerance mindset which is good.
They have been right there, in plain view of drivers and still, tickets have been issued. There have been some people who have noticed people not driving as fast on the streets as well. This is a good sign.
So, as for the car, I have to wait until Monday when I hear back from the PT’s doctor (Miltown Collision) and until then, I’m headed out to knock on a few doors, then head out to the Salvation Army Quarter Carnival at Pinelands Park on Trafalgar Road (north of 401). Hopefully the rain will hold off for the rest of the afternoon.
I’ll see you at the doors.
Mike