boo-boos

about noon today, what should have been a pleasant walk back to work was made less-than-pleasant by what appeared to me to be an act of simple stupidity.

I was approaching Joe’s Tire [2225 Union Blvd, Allentown, PA?], as I had often in the past. I saw someone start to make a u-turn in a black compact car. I look up the street. There approaches a red minivan, doing a speed normal for people driving Union Bd. I saw the black car slow, then speed in front of the minivan as its nose was near. Collision. They pull in the tire shop to exchange data. I am surprised the lady in the minivan was not more frazzled than she was. I was not leaving the scene until the cops came. I saw two cops come out on the Union Diner, at the opposite corner of the intersection, and hailed them over. Once I gave my name and account of the scene, I was off to stew.

Union Boulevard, Allentown, is a busy street by day during the week. Rare is the time no cars are travelling along any block at that time, especially lunch. Because it is busy, often, vehicles do not exceed the speed limit, 35mi/hr. Even at that speed, making a left to enter the road from a side street tends to be a tentative thing. That is why it amazed me that he would do a U-turn with a vehicle approaching, and more amazed he would expect someone else to yield to him. Granted, I do normally pay attention to traffic except when I attempt to cross the street, and cannot say definitely he saw the vehicle a block away, if he was even paying attention. Still, you do not expect to see that happen in front of you.