This actually happened Wednesday night during “It Came From the Sky, Part 2″.
While creeping west on Route 120, I noticed a stopped vehicle in the eastbound lane, with cars began accumulating behind it like snowflakes on the cold pavement. I shrugged, assuming that either the stopped vehicle had been rear-ended or had broken down.
Suddenly, the vehicle’s right-turn signal began flashing. That was when I noticed that it was backing up, down Route 120, at night, in the snow.
The driver backed up for another 20 feet or so, then very slowly made a right turn (forward) into a church parking lot that has a day-care sign out front.
I nearly screamed the glass out of my windshield in utter amazement.
Barring any medical emergency or vehicular failure, really now: what was this person thinking, backing up down a major road in this weather? It’s called “keep driving forward until you find a safe place to turn around, and do so”.
I give kudos to the drivers held up by this incident. Nobody set forth a car horn sonata, despite the delay. Perhaps these motorists drank from a wellspring of patience and compassion borne of the crappy road conditions, while I took a swig of stunned surprise.
I once saw a car back up 500 feet on Route 41 because the driver apparently missed the exit. I assume the two incidents aren’t related, except that Wednesday’s experience dredged up the memory. This kind of driving is best left to cartoons, movies and Europe, not Grayslake.
