Luggage and traffic

As I sit here at my beloved home in Ithaca, NY, waiting for the luggage that didn't make it out of Chicago yesterday and pondering whether I am sick or just let-lagged, I read this post on Stina's website:

Kill, Kill, Kill!

The post reminds me of the first fieldtrip I made in the Philippines. We were headed for a place just outside the city limits of Metro Manila, negotiating the insane traffic on Commonwealth (also know as Marcos, even if noone misses that guy particularly much) Avenue. In Manila, the local traffic customs call for extensive use of u-turns to get places and all highways have specially marked u-turn spots which the cars in the innermost 2 or so lanes can use (not that anyone takes the concept of lanes very seriously in Manila, but that's another story). We were fighting our way along the ~2nd innermost lane and approaching a u-turn spot when all of a sudden a giganormous truck, in the 4th lane or so, swerves to make that u-turn. Our driver William managed to brake before colliding with the truck's cargo but the van behind us was way too close and rear-ended us. None of us had the presence of mind to get that stupid asshole truck's license plate number, but fortunately none of us, except for the rear-ending van, was hurt in the slightest. In fact, the blow from the rear-ending was so mild that our Mercedes didn't even suffer a scratch. But for crying out loud, who in their right mind makes a u-turn from the middle lane across a busy 6-lane highway??