Somewhere, Driver's Ed Teachers are Cringing

People seem to forget everything they were taught in Driver's Education, like most high-school-based learning. Unlike most high-school-based learning, instead of people forgetting knowledge through no conscious act of their own, people in Driver's Ed seem to forget because, once they get behind that wheel, they want to drive however the heck they want to, rules be damned.

Sadly, this causes people to forget extremely important guidelines - guidelines that could affect the safety of people in danger.

Twice in the last three days, an emergency vehicle has come down the road I was driving on. Friday, it was a fire truck. Today, it was an ambulance. The first thing I did, one of the things I learned in Driver's Ed, was to get out of the way of the emergency vehicle. "By the book," this means pulling off to the right side of the road and stopping. Naturally, it is not always safe to immediately pull off to the right side of the road - there might be cars to your right. And, there is not always a shoulder to pull off onto. I ran into both of these problems.

So, in the case of the fire truck, I had a shoulder off to the left, so I slowed down and pulled off into the shoulder. There was no shoulder today, and several cars on my right. I gradually slowed down and came to an eventual stop. Both times, cars were driving behind me. Both times, the cars driving behind me honked at me and cursed my name.

With the fire truck, the car behind me seemed to notice me pulling off to the shoulder and made an attempt to speed around. Today, the car behind me turned on his turn signal and appeared ready to get into the next lane (right into the way of the ambulance, I might add).

It wasn't until the emergency vehicles came close, that the cars finally realized what I was doing and stopped the honking, cursing, and fist-shaking. Yes, not until they were close by - because, you know, those sirens are way too quiet for anyone to hear from a distance. The emergency vehicles sped by, hopefully making their intended destinations in time.

When I began to slow down, the people behind me were obviously thinking, "What the #$%^%^ is this &%%$@! doing??! What a stupid #$^^%!!!"

I don't know what they were thinking when the emergency vehicles came by. I can only hope they thought "Oh, it's EMS. I'd better get out of the way and stop my selfish tirade. Boy, it's a good thing the guy ahead of me noticed. I owe him an apology." But that, of course, is wishful thinking. They probably went on with their business, and the next time someone slows down for an emergency vehicle, they'll probably go back to their honking and cursing.

Somewhere, those people's Driver's Ed teachers are cringing.