Sunday evening, I was driving my pickup truck (an old 1993 Ford Ranger) into central Sacramento in the southbound right lane of the Capital City Freeway.
Jasper was sitting in his personal cardboard box on the passenger seat of the pickup truck. Jasper's leash was wrapped around the passenger seat to restrain his movements in the pickup cab.
We began entering the 'Marconi curve.' The freeway bends left, gets hemmed in by concrete walls, and begins to dive down under the Marconi Avenue overpass. Traffic was close-packed and moving fast (60 miles per hour, and slowing as it entered the curve).
Just at that instant, a large dog materialized at the roadside and started crossing the freeway directly in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and whipped the pickup into the adjacent lane, hoping that no vehicles were actually present there (there weren't any). I don't believe I hit the dog, but can't say what happened with the vehicle directly behind me. I pray the dog changed its mind about crossing the freeway.
With the violent lane change, Jasper's box spilled forward onto the floor, but Jasper was restrained by his leash. My poor dog flailed away at the end of his leash trying to get back onto the seat.
My pickup truck has a strange safety feature, probably associated with the Automatic Braking System (ABS). If you brake hard at freeway speeds, the brakes come on and stay on, preventing you from resuming freeway speed again. Suddenly slowed to 30 mph, I struggled to proceed forwards, eventually exiting on El Camino Avenue in order to give the ABS a chance to resume normal function (which it did).
I just hope that dog is OK.
What a frightening experience. Glad that you were correct that no one was in the adjacent lane, and hope that the dog did decided to change course. Most of all, glad that you are safe.
ReplyDelete