Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Uninvited Bugs Do Cause Accidents

Can you believe that there are actually statistics regarding the percentage of car accidents blamed on uninvited bugs and insects!?! 


Uninvited Bugs Do Cause Accidents


In 2006, it was reported that over half a million motorists* have had a car accident thanks to distractions caused by insects and bugs, totaling an estimated £44 million of car damage each year – Wow.

Luckily my friend, who posted the story below, was able to survive her bug encounter unscathed.

Post by Joanna T.

 

So this weird thing happened on Sunday ...I was driving down to Bonita to meet up with some junior high school pals. When I take a long drive, I tend to bring my left foot up on the seat and sit half cross legged. I had a T shirt type dress on and had slipped off my flip flops. Sitting like that in a dress creates kind of a tent. Anyways, I'm cruising about 70 down the freeway and I hear a really loud buzzing, I mean really loud. I glanced down and saw there was a fruit beetle on the driver’s side floorboard. (If you don't know fruit beetles- they are really large bugs, sort of metallic green looking, real hard shell, and make a LOUD buzzing sound, they are harmless but actually kind of scary when they run into you because their shell is so hard).

The beetle zooms up to the seat and goes under my dress and is buzzing around knocking into my thighs! I freaked out... Not a good thing when you're traveling at high speed is a box shaped car on the freeway. It was an involuntary panicky screamy type of freak out, my car was swerving all over the place as I was jumping around and swatting at the beetle.

People in the next lanes were honking at me, and I actually banged my head on the side window during my fit. I finally knocked it out from under my dress and onto the floorboard, slipped my flip flop back on and slammed my foot down on the bug. I thought that was it, and kept my foot firmly planted for several minutes.

Once I regained control of my car and of myself, I laughed out loud to myself and though wow I almost died from a fruit beetle! I probably should have pulled over and thrown the bug out of the car, but I thought it was squished under my flip flop. Once I calmed down, I put my foot back up in the seat and continued on my way. I left the flip flop on top of the bug.

About 15 minutes later I glance down and see it slowly crawling out from under the front of the flip flop. Panicked again, but less swerving because at least it wasn't under my dress touching my skin! So I slammed my foot back down on the flip flop and trapped the bug under there again. Man those things are really hard shelled and hard to kill!

So I rode the rest of the way to Bonita with my foot pressing down as hard as possible. I don't know why I didn't just pull off the freeway and take care of it for sure, I just didn't. When I got to my friend’s house I couldn't find the beetle in my car, i was telling my friends what had happened and the little fucker flew out of my car and was buzzing my head! They started jumping around too and it finally flew away. I know this sounds like a made up story, but it's not!

My friends can attest to the beetle buzzing me in my her driveway. Maybe my blue dress attracted it, I don't know. It was just a crazy afternoon and I think that beetle was out to get me. We both lived through it, but I'm gonna steer clear of fruit beetles from now on. 

Stay Safe Out There!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.