Tampa driver suddenly realizes there are other people on the road
Jim Klumwart, who commutes to and from his home in Temple Terrace to his job in downtown Tampa at least five days a week just became aware of the fact that the other cars in traffic are being driven by other human beings.
“I was doing my regular morning routine, driving to work and not letting any cars cut in front of me for any reason whatsoever,” he said. “Then there was this car that was trying desperately to merge to get on I-4 and I was like, ‘no chance, sucker’ and for some reason, I looked over at the car and there was this guy in the driver seat! He looked kind of frantic like he really needed to get on I-4. His wife and kids were in there too. I didn’t know how to react but it occurred to me that if he really needed to make that move, I didn’t need to make that harder on him than it needed to be, that I could actually help that family. I eased up a little and he guided his car right in, smiled and gave me a big wave.”
“I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t that,” he said. “Then I looked around at the other cars around me and they all had people in them too!”
It apparently had never occurred to him that the cars he dealt with in traffic every day weren’t just put there to make his life more difficult.
“This answers so many questions, yet at the same time, asks a bunch of new ones,” he said. “If these are human beings, presumably capable of thinking critically and experiencing emotions, then it’s possible that they’re not trying to kill me or even make me late.”
“And if that’s the case, who are these people? Where did they come from? Where are they going? Is it possible they’re trying to get to work or run errands and just generally live their lives? Like me?? If so, then that means I actually have very basic things in common with all of them and they’re not adversaries.”
Unfortunately, he came to this conclusion while driving and was so distracted by the new paradigm that he drove under a dump truck at 65 mph and was killed instantly.
