Minnesota Musings: Car Driver's Bucket List

The driver's license is issued to people who have completed Driver's training and have gone to a test of their abilities and scored enough points to achieve upgrading their learner's permit to a license.

This license gives said person the privilege of motivating their vehicle around on the nations highways, back roads, streets and perhaps farmer's fields. At any rate, you are allowed to drive where ever you are allowed.

Minnesotans are raised with an attitude of 'don't talk to strangers' and this is evident in their driving. People will drive like they are the only person on the road. They have been known to drive recklessly and take many dangerous chances.

Some make it to their destination. Some do not.

Some people seem intent on fulfilling a bucket list of sorts. This list, includes, but is not all inclusive. The list:

• tailgating - driving as close as you can to the car in front of you
• passing and being within twenty feet of the front bumper of the car you are passing
• driving in the fast lane at the same speed as the car that you are pretending to pass, hanging in the lane next to the other car on the road
• driving over the speed limit and being negative to other drivers
• using offensive hand gestures as they pass
• looking angry and irritated
• flicking cigarettes out the window
• throwing garbage out the window
• passing a car, pulling in front of them, then slowing down
• swerving between car after car like a big slalom game

I'm sure there are others and feel free to add them in the comments below.

My family was to meet at our daughter's house for Thanksgiving this year and all were expected to show up to eat at noon. As people trickled in, the first showing up at 10 a.m., there was light conversation and people were getting settled in and preparing for the big feast.

The family is not as large as it used to be. It involves my husbands parents, their four children and spouses, all of our children and three grand children. The eldest parents do not drive so they were to be transported by my husband's sister and arrive with her.

My husband's sister and her husband arrived and were dramatically describing an accident that they encountered just before they arrived. There was a rear end collision. The one car was stopped to turn and was waiting for oncoming traffic.

The driver that hit the stopped car, was chatting and adjusting a GPS. They did not see the stopped car in front of them and hit the stopped car going very fast. The speed limit has recently changed on the road to 60 MPH, but the impact of them hitting the stopped car, pushed the stopped car and them and additional 100 feet down the road.

There were piles of car parts strewn everywhere. The two cars were joined at the back bumper.

My husband answered his phone. The accident that the brother in law had described, just happened to be the other sister bringing the parents to the party.

They were being transported to the hospital and could someone please come to the hospital at some point. Dad received a violent dash hit and needed 14 stitches. Mom was in the back seat and the force of the impact, left her with two cracked ribs and no memory of the incident. The sister also went to the hospital and was checked over and released.

The initial sister and brother and law went to the hospital, and the other brother and his wife went to the hospital to help deal with paperwork.

The grand children played with their markers and we put off cooking the potatoes. Finally, we decided to just cook the mashed potatoes and gravy and eat some of the turkey, ham, dressing hot dish, cranberries and baked beans.

It was a quiet, sad meal, waiting for updates on their hospital endeavors. The weather outside was perfect. No snow. No rain. Clear skies.

Not the right conditions for a car accident. No excuse.

People who had come with other people and were left at the party, needed to be transported back home.

A care package was made of all the leftover food, since most had not even gotten to eat. So, we packed up the food and brought it to the home where all the accident victims were to be staying. The parents could not be left alone after their accident so the women took turns staying with them. My husband sat with his father, while myself and my youngest child went to the hospital to visit my mother in law.

We didn't know if this would be our last visit, or not.

The accident ended up on the news. KTOE and KYSM ran the story.

Five people in the accident. Four non-life threatening injuries.

All because someone was abusing their driver's license priviledge..

It was a bad accident. No one was killed, but the injured will be healing for months to come. All for the sake of one person who wasn't paying attention.