TIFU and almost hit a police officer with my car
This happened a few years ago, but thought I’d share now that the shame has dissipated a bit.
I was working nights, commuting 1.2hrs each way. After one long shift ending at 2am, I found my car covered in a layer of frost.
I turned up the heat and I probably could have used the ice scraper in my back seat, but I just wanted to get home and sleep. I started driving without full visibility. I had figured a few things; I would be driving slow and taking care to use what visibility window I had. The roads would be pretty empty. By the time I reached the first intersection just up the hill past my workplace, the airflow and heat will have defrosted the windows and my view would be clear before I’d make that turn onto the main road.
I pulled out of the employee lot and turned the corner to drive in front of my workplace and came across a sight I did not expect. A police car was pulled off on the opposite side of the street from my lane, lights flashing. My limited visibility became even worse as the glare in my face obscured everything.
My speed slowed further and I drove hugging the curb on my side of the street.
And promptly slammed on my brakes as I realized someone in my car’s path.
I nearly ran over a police officer, who had apparently been on the side of the road, and in my attempt to give the police car on the opposite side more room, I had veered directly towards him.
I rolled down my window and put my car in park while the officer yelled at me, rightfully pretty angry. He swore a couple times. I told him honestly that I did not see him. He asked if I was drunk. I said no, told him I had just finished work. My building was still right there but I thought better than to point at it. I kept my hands on the wheel. I had the logo on my jacket anyway.
He told me to go. I definitely was expecting to get some form of citation for that but did not. I left as directed and spent a good deal of that drive shaking. I nearly committed vehicle manslaughter just outside my workplace. (Exaggeration. My car was pretty much crawling up that hill with how slow I was going. But still.)
As the driver I was one hundred percent at fault. Even more so because I did not take the time to ensure my windows were clear of frost before driving.
I do feel that the needlessly bright police car lights are an obstruction in of themselves, but emergency lights are designed that way intentionally for better or worse. That doesn’t change the fact that my adjustments were unsuccessful and created a dangerous situation that could have ended a whole lot worse.
TLDR; drove with poor visibility and very nearly hit a police officer. Miraculously let off with only some harsh words.