If your car breaks down, don’t leave it here

Greg and I were on the way to lunch at the local Mongolian place, Crazy Fire. As we passed under the I-40 & U.S. 1 interchange, Greg slammed on the brakes. A disabled tractor-trailer was parked under the bridge and partially blocking the merge lane.

This intersection is bad enough without a large truck blocking it, as the merge lane is WAY too short for traffic merging onto and off of the interstate. I knew when I saw it that I had to call it in to the police.

As we maneuvered around the swerving cars, I dialed 911. A minute later, the call connects me.

“What is the location of your emergency?” asked the dispatcher.

“I’m not sure this is a Raleigh or Cary thing,” I said. “There is a disabled semi blocking the merge lane under I-40 on U.S. 1.”

“Hold please, I’ll transfer you to Cary,” she said.

A few moments later, I’m talking to Cary 911. I repeated what I told the Raleigh dispatcher.

“Is the truck on I-40?” she asked.

“No. It’s on U.S. 1.”

“And you said it was on the ramp?” she said.

“Well, it’s not really on the ramp, per se. It’s actually blocking half of the merge lane.”

“Okay, sir. Understand that we need to be very particular here. Is it on the ramp, or on U.S. 1? Because if it’s on the ramp, it’s Highway Patrol.”

I blinked. It’s a freakin’ huge truck! Mister Magoo could find it! And here I am, being asked to differentiate between the ramp and the merge lane, which just happened to be right on the city limits between Raleigh and Cary.

With a mental flip of the coin, I told her the truck was on U.S. 1, at which point she cheerfully told me “we’ll send someone out!”

So the moral is never to break down under a major interstate right on the city limits between cities with two different 911 centers. You may never be found.