BOOM! What Was That?

BOOM!

“Crap! What was that?” I said aloud in the car even though I had no passengers.

I had just dropped Meghan off at school and was on my 15-20 minute drive back home. The majority of my drive is on a two-lane country highway with a speed limit of 55. There are farming fields on either side of the highway. I am on that highway now.

Ahead of me are the train tracks. I notice, later than I should have, that there are cars stopped on the other side of the tracks and, oh, yeah, the railroad crossing lights are flashing. I stop my car – again, probably a bit closer to the tracks than is normal, but perfectly safe.

That’s when the BOOM! happens. I look in my rearview mirror and see several other cars stopped but no indication of what has caused the loud noise that sounded like something hitting my car.

And that’s when I notice the railroad crossing gate on the other side of the tracks is down blocking the stopped cars from crossing the tracks.

Holy crap! My car is underneath the warning gate! What an idiot I am!

I put my car in reverse gear and tentatively lift my foot off the brake.

CRUNCH…CRUNCH…CRUNCH. And then BOOM! The gate drops from the top of my car to the hood. I reverse further, careful to check if anyone is stopped close behind me. Of course they aren’t. They are half a football field away watching this spectacle. Like a bunny rabbit, the gate jumps down my hood until finally, it is lying horizontally in front of my vehicle. Where it’s supposed to be.

I am mortified. I scan the cars in front of me. I scan the cars behind me. Do I know anyone? Does anyone recognize my car? If so, I am doomed.

I have no concern about the potential damage my Honda Pilot has suffered. I suppose, though, that I have to tell Pat since he may know some of the many witnesses to this remarkable display of inattentive driving. I can’t let him find out from somebody else. Better to ‘fess up and convince him that this little incident is really kind of funny.

It has never occurred to me that one of those gates would actually land on a car! To be honest though, before now, I have never actually wondered about it. You would think that a railroad gate would be equipped with some sort of sensor. Like an automatic garage door opener that stops when it senses there is something beneath it, blocking its descent. Well, warning to all of you daydreaming drivers out there: they don’t. ✿