Stuck at the intersection

[PepperElf]

Kheldarson's "Intersection Fail" reminded me of one of my own intersection fails but I didn't feel like thread-jacking.


That's me driving my red car in the far right lane. Well… I was attempting to drive. The transmission went. So my car suddenly wouldn't go foreword. All I could do was drive at a crawl in reverse.

I had my blinkers on and had already called AAA for help but in the meantime people kept pulling up behind me thinking that I was somehow going to go.

Nope not gonna happen.

I don't remember if anyone honked at me… pretty much most of them figured out "O gee the blinkers are on!" and pulled around me. The only one who was truly sucky was one guy who waited a long time and then pulled around me… but by then the light had turned red. So he pretty much ran the red light.

Although truth be told, no one really *needed* to be in that lane - myself included. I had been planning to use it to pass the slow people in the other lanes. You see the lane I was in and the lane to the left of me both … merge to the left. And from the picture you can see that the right hand turn lane had its own separate turn off. (and I admit if I hadn't jerked into that lane in the first place my transmission might have lasted a bit longer… maybe?)


Eventually I got lucky though. A couple of army guys came up behind me and saw that I was stuck. They backed up and blocked off traffic enough to let me go in reverse and pull into the empty field - the one right below the right hand turn lane.

From there I could safely wait for AAA to show up, and traffic wouldn't be blocked.


As a side bonus that right hand turn lane … it eventually lead to the local dealer for my brand of car. yeah I broke down within 5 miles of the dealer. hah. that was kinda lucky on my part.

[bhskittykatt]

Don't you love people who always think that a stalled car that's stalled will magically start if they will it enough or honk at it enough? If only the world worked that way...

I just love it when I'm out pushing, and someone honks. As if I can push a dead vehicle out of the way any faster.

[Jetfire]

The Honkers probably watched too much Children's TV with the "If you at home clap REALLY loudly, maybe the puppet will wake up!" so they believe if everyone honks really loudly, the stalled car will work again.

[Shalom]

I think I would've raised the hood on the car. Maybe then the morons honking at you would have realized the car ain't going anywhere.

(And it wouldn't have blocked your visibility anyway, if all you could go was backwards.)

[Caractacus_Potts]

I think I would've raised the hood on the car. Maybe then the morons honking at you would have realized the car ain't going anywhere.

(And it wouldn't have blocked your visibility anyway, if all you could go was backwards.)

My alternator died unbeknownst to me and my car died (as in the battery finally ran too dry to keep the engine turning over) while I was waiting to take a left at a lighted intersection (much smaller intersection than the OP's).

I put my blinkers on as I waited for AAA but with almost no juice in the battery they could barely be seen. I put my hood up and I stayed behind the car off to the side doing the point-wave thing at the people coming up behind my car.

I would say about 90% of the people took the hint and went around my car with no problem. Several pulled up behind me and asked if I needed help or a phone.

One guy ignored me completely and just pulled behind me and waited. I walked up and tapped on his window. He rolls down the window and I tell him, "My car is dead, you're going to have to go around it."

He screams at me, "WELL WHY THE FUCK DON'T YOU HAVE YOUR BLINKERS ON IF YOU'RE BROKEN DOWN!!!!"

I calmly reply, "My blinkers are on but it's an electrical problem so they are pretty hard to see. That's why I have the hood up and have been standing here waving people to go around me."

Surprisingly he looked properly chagrined and apologized to me.