Legalities vs Emotions (part 1)

A few weeks back I was on my way to work on a Friday morning. I was in a pretty good mood, as I usually am on Fridays. I'm sitting in a long line of cars waiting on a red light to turn green. I'm many, many cars behind the light. I have a clear view of the traffic light, even though I'm pretty far back. It occurs to me that the single lane that I'm in separates into 3 lanes further ahead: a left-turn lane, a right-turn lane, and a lane that goes straight. I intend to turn left eventually. There's no one moving in the line of cars in front of me, and there's no one travelling in the on-coming traffic lane. Traffic inches up a little bit.

Now, to the left of me, there is a lane beginning to form. It is actually a left-turn lane for the on-coming traffic, so I'm not supposed to use it. But, if I merge into it and drive for about 7 seconds or so, I will soon be in my left-turn lane that I will need. I look behind me and see nothing. I look ahead, and after a few seconds decide to just go for it. I cut my wheel to the left to go around the cars in front of me and SMASH!!!

It turned out that someone in the row of cars sitting behind me must have had the same idea I had about going around traffic. I yelled at myself for not looking behind me one more time before attempting to merge. I immediately feel remorseful since I am only focused on what I could have done to prevent the incident. We both pull our cars to the side of the road. I am so shaken...my beautiful little SUV has marks on it now. :-( Oh well, it's just a vehicle, I think to myself. The lady steps out of her car.

I didn't know it at the time, but this would become one of the oddest and most emotionally complex situations that I have encountered in my 32 years of living.

Legalities vs Emotions (part 2) coming soon...