A few weeks ago, I was driving behind a few cars as I approached an intersection with a stoplight. The speed limit was 45 mph and that seemed to be the flow of traffic. I was a few hundred feet away from the intersection when I saw the light turn red. There were three cars in front of me so I began to slow in preparation to stop.

All three cars in front of me should have stopped at the intersection as the light was already red; however, the first car of the three flew through the red light. Behind that car and second of the three vehicles in front of me was a large moving truck. It was tall enough that the car behind it could not see the stop light.

The truck failed to slow down at the intersection and proceeded to run a red light which had already been red for two seconds. It was not appropriate, but I get it; the truck was big and heavy and a little tougher to slow. The cars in the perpendicular street could see the big truck coming through the intersection so they wisely waited to enter the intersection despite their now green light. It was the car following the moving truck—the third one—that troubled me.

This car was following the truck closely and blindly. The moving truck was so high that this car could not see over it. The driver was completely trusting the vehicle in front of him and seemed to be unaware of the red light. After the truck’s passage through the red light, opposing traffic began slowly and appropriately moving forward into the intersection. The driver of the third car, however, followed the big truck, running a light that had been red for a very unsafe amount of time. He barely escaped a collision with the wise drivers who—again—paused while this car raced through the intersection following the big truck.

For me this was a simple yet profound lesson in following. Whom are we following? Why are we following whom we are following? Are we following blindly, not knowing if we are doing the right thing? This driver was. Was it dangerous? Absolutely. Did he survive? In this instance, yes, but in many cases the answer is, no.

The signs were there, and they were all obvious, but the driver could not see them or did not slow down enough to see them. The vision of the driver was limited, and he took a great risk with limited vision. We must be cautious to not just follow without assessing our situation.