I wasn't sure where to put this but just wanted to touch base on a driver's safety issue.

We drove around the Olympic Peninsula last weekend where most of the road is 2-lane, windy, narrow, etc. Several times we found ourselves trapped behind very slow drivers going as much as 10mph UNDER the speed limit. Even though this road has many designated turn-outs for slow drivers to use to let faster vehicles pass, they didn't seem to realize this applied to them. At one point, I counted 15 cars stuck behind a very slow mini-van.

During this time, I saw several near-miss accidents occur when people tried to pass and move up in line to pass this slow driver.

Another slow driver later on that day decided to pull just partly off the road to let faster cars go by. The car immediately behind him was following very close and, since the slow driver didn't pull all the way off the road, this faster car had to slam on his brakes to avoid collision. The 5-6 of us behind them also had to slam on our brakes. I was just about standing on mine! If anyone had brakes that weren't in good shape, there could have been an accident or 2 or 3.

So, I guess I just wanted to give a friendly reminder to slower drivers to considerate and pull over when faster drivers are behind you. And, when you do pull over, make sure you are doing it in such a way that doesn't cause a pile-up behind you. Whether it's one car or 15 cars, accidents can occur if those wanting to go faster get too impatient about trying to pass. And, remember, in many states you can technically get a ticket if you are holding up more than 5 cars behind you.

And don't go thinking that you're going as fast as any car should and think you should set the pace. Some drivers are quite aggressive and may cause a terrible accident by passing on corners, etc. to get around you. And they may collide with someone innocently coming the other way.

I've seen way too many near-misses over the years in these situations so I just felt like it was a good thing to remind people about. Take care out there!