I was heading out to do some errands today, almost had a collision happen
right next to me. Interesting circumstances, so I thought I would post this
one for the group. My road, Park Rd. in Westbrook, Maine for any other locals,
ends at a "T" intersection with another road, Cumberland St. Both roads have
fairly heavy commuter traffic. There is a stop sign on Park Rd, Cumberland St.
is straight through. This can result in a bit of a wait to pull out at rush
hour. Such was the situation today - it was 4pm, I was the first car in line,
heavy cross traffic in both directions, probably 4-5 cars waiting behind me.
Now, this intersection has a slight complication in that there is a railroad
overpass almost immediately to the left, and the very end of Park Rd is a
steep downgrade, as is the cross street to go under the railroad bridge. So if
you have passed under the bridge approaching the right turn onto Park Rd.,
there is very little visibility into the lane you are turning into. Normally,
not a problem, there is nothing to see there anyway, you are turning right,
going up a short, steep hill with no driveways or anything on either side
until you crest the hill.

Today things got interesting - a fire truck came screaming up behind the line
of cars waiting at the intersection, full lights and sirens. The 5-6 of us in
line had absolutely nowhere to go to get out of the way, so everyone stayed
put. The fire truck proceeded to come screaming down the hill on the wrong
side of the road, passing all the cars. I'm thinking - oh dear, hope noone
comes around the corner. Sure enough, a big SUV does exactly that. Thankfully,
the road was both well sanded and temps were above freezing - the firetruck
and the SUV stopped nose to nose with about six inches to spare! Immediately
next to my driver's side door! VERY exciting for all parties, I assure you! Of
course there were cars behind the SUV, so she couldn't go anywhere - I, and
the car behind me turned right on Cumberland and got out of the way, making
enough room for the fire truck to manuever around and go left. This was
possible because the SUV and car behind were blocking Cumberland St. traffic
at this point.

Poses an interesting question - in my opinion, the SUV driver was driving
perfectly responsibly - she was going a very modest speed in turning onto Park
Rd. (and not on the phone!!) I think that if she heard the siren, there is no
way of knowing where it was coming from in that environment. Absolutely no way
she could see the fire truck until she made the turn. On the other hand,
emergency vehicles have near absolute right-of-way in Maine. Still, seems like
the fire truck driver was being not so bright in what he did into a nearly
blind intersection.

Certainly the situation made me think - I would probably have been going
considerably faster around the corner, though I like to think I would also be
trying to figure out where the siren was coming from.

Anyway, food for thought....

Kevin Rhodes
Westbrook, Maine
Sundry European stuff in the garage.