A funny thing happened on the way to work yesterday...

I take a bus to and from work every day. I drive to one of the nearby Houston Metro Park and Ride lots in the morning and then catch a bus into downtown Houston. My bus route uses one of Houston's HOV Lanes so we miss the normal rush hour traffic on the freeway.

Yesterday there was some kind of accident on the freeway and the traffic was really backed up.
A lot of drivers were just getting off of the freeway altogether.

As I was getting out of my car at the park and ride lot I noticed a car pull up right behind me. The man driving asked if I would not mind riding with him into downtown so he could drive in the HOV lane.

I said sure and hopped in since it would save me time from having to wait on the bus.

After we introduced ourselves and got to talking about where we worked a discussion came up about asbestos and silicosis litigation.

It turns out that this guy worked for a large manufacturing company and was pretty familiar with the various asbestos liabilites that manufacturing companies often face.

It was interesting to get his take on the latest failed asbestos reform bill in the Senate. He was not for it but was for stricter medical criteria similiar to what was recently passed in Texas.

We also talked about this story and this recent verdict.