My morning commute involves a 5-minute stretch of winding road with lots of hills, mostly a residential area with a few businesses. As we’re approaching a farm stand, a car in front of me slows a bit and taps their brakes. No problem, it’s reasonable to expect someone to slow down past the farm stand; it’s kind of a blind hill. But then I notice they’re still braking, and before I know it I find myself in full-on threshold braking to avoid hitting this car (luckily there was no one behind me). I had been giving them plenty of room, by the way. That gap closed fast.
Then I see why.
This must have been the driver’s reaction to seeing a furry little woodland creature darting across the road - something that is EXTREMELY COMMON by the way, and in fact, it’s happening so much recently that it made the local news. No, really:
Ok, maybe they got flustered by looking at the farm stand, then looking back and seeing the squirrel at the last second... who knows? I gave them a little extra room after that though. Which was good because about 2 miles later THEY DID IT AGAIN - full on panic stop in the middle of a 40mph zone at 8:45am on a weekday. Because of a squirrel.
My only question is, how have they not caused an accident yet? Just this morning, I probably saw five squirrels crossing the road. That’s a lot of panic for one day.
This person should have their license revoked. That behavior is more dangerous than speeding, by a factor of 10. Try that business in front of a fully-loaded logging truck, which is not an uncommon sight on this road.