Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Close One!

I had a close call this morning.  Due to construction in Anoka I was on plan E as far as getting to work on my motorcycle.  So many of the roads I usually take are closed that I chose to drive down Ninth Avenue between Main Street and Coon Rapids Boulevard.  Ninth Avenue is a residential street with a few stop signs.  And there is construction on that road as well but I knew I could get through even though there is a sign posted that says "local traffic only."  As I turned off Main Street onto Ninth, there was a dump truck ahead of me.  I gave it lots of space.  As the dump truck crossed an intersection it slowed and stopped in the middle of the road. I pulled a little closer as I waited for it to proceed but not too close.  The dump truck just idled in the same position for about 30 seconds.  My eyes widened as I saw the lights come on that indicate he shifted into reverse.  Motorcycles don't have a reverse.  I started peddling my feet to move my bike backwards as fast as I could go.  The dump truck roared back toward me faster than I could peddle backwards.  I didn't hear any back up beeping sounds but that might have been because I was screaming so loud.  I was about to jump off it and let it lie in the road when I saw the dump truck was veering toward the curb.  He was parallel parking a dump truck.  How often do you see a dump truck parallel park? The truck driver's decision to crank his wheel is what saved me.  If he hadn't been turning toward the curb I would have been road kill.  I don't believe he ever saw me or heard my little Suzuki horn beeping constantly.  My heart was pounding and I owe another dollar to my swearing fund.  Lucky for me I was alert and saw those back up lights right away and took immediate evasive action.  Wow, that was a close one!

2 comments:

Cajo said...

Glad you are safe! Be careful.

Sue said...

I will be careful

One More Sleep