Am I missing something, or was this lady just insane?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Yeah, I didn’t see her until I was in the path of her backing up, because of the bus. But I was going super slow because I wasn’t sure WTF the bus was trying to do.

And I realize you can’t always see all traffic when backing out. Which is why I 1.) go slowly and stutter-start, checking my increased field of vision as I go; and 2.) if I hear a horn, I stop and look around!

I do tend to live by the idea that everyone is an idiot sometimes. I’ve done idiotic things behind the wheel - it only takes a moment of human negligence. But it’s harder for me to accept the “everyone’s an asshole sometimes” philosophy, because it takes positive effort to be an asshole. (It’s still probably true, though.)

22

As I learned from experience…

When people are following you, or appear to be;

DO NOT speed off or drive wildly.
DO NOT go home.

DO drive to public places with lots of people in position to see you drive up and get out of your vehicle, and then into a store or establishment also with lots of people. If you see a cop car there, so much the better. Busy gas stations, fast food establishments, auto service centers are probably the best places. Convenience store gas stations primarily because they not only have the traffic, but they have cameras. Hell, if nothing else avails, go into a bank.

Go there, park close, go inside. Limit your outside exposure if they follow you into the lot. Fuck the parking spots, drive around so you can park directly in front of the door and go from car door to door with a minimum of exposure, so they can’t intercept you and accost you outside. Any parking issues at that time are the least of your worries. LOCK YOUR CAR.

Once inside, if it looks like they’re following you in, alert the staff and ask them to call the police (fuck the courtesy of waiting, interrupt them immediately), because they’ve been following you, and if they’re following you IN to that location, it isn’t to say hello.

If they come in and accost you, do not run away, do not run outside. Stand right at the counter or wherever else you’re likely to be firmly on-camera and be prepared to try to ward off blows. Tell them immediately that you’ve already called the police and they should leave. Don’t argue, don’t scream, don’t hit them yourself, but also don’t just stand there and take it if they start swinging.

23

All that happened to you, Chimera? :eek:

24

Hey! Are you in MA? My dad got hit by that woman too, around 30 years ago. According to him he was on a long, narrow, winding road w/out many passing zones that only had farms on it, not houses, following a woman. For no reason, she stopped the car, and since he couldn’t pass her, he had to stop too. Then she threw the car into reverse, and ignored his horn until she hit him. She braked after bumping him, looked at the cars, then took off like out of hell. That’s a WTF story you don’t forget.

More recently he was hit by an elderly state rep who had been in front of him, but quickly banged a U-turn to hit him head on, apparently deciding that he’d like to go back the way he came without switching lanes…poor Dad draws these people like a magnet.

25

Wait, Cinammon, are you actually telling us that you met the Queen of the Universe, and you didn’t even curtsy?

Sheesh.

26

Yeah, I’m rude, huh?

Chimera, whatever your experience was, it sounds like it was harrowing! Thanks for sharing the important information.

FWIW, my plan when I realized she was still behind me was to drive into my neighborhood, toward my house, but to pass my driveway if she was still behind me and loop around (luckily I don’t live on a dead end), then head to the fire station, pull up as close as possible to the building, and lay on the horn like nobody’s business until they came out. Not cops, but I figure even a psycho would be somewhat hesitant to attack someone in front of a bunch of fire fighters at the station. Anyway, I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the car, as my daughter was in her car seat. There is hardly a more vulnerable position than you’re in as you try to get a kid in or out of one of those!

Thankfully it seems she was only slightly nutty, and happens to live within a mile of me.

27

Wow, you were lucky. If someone is following you they say to stay in the car and drive to a police station or a hospital. Now with cell phones I would call 911 and keep driving. I would do a drive by in her neighborhood and get her plate number just in case she tries this again.

28

I was trying to merge in front of a bus once. He had a very large space in front of him when I began my merge. Suddenly I noticed the he was very slowly inching forward. I had a car behind me so couldn’t back up, so I laid on the horn. Nothin doin, he still kept coming forward. So now I was at an angle in front of his rear bumper. I looked up and saw that he was looking out over his left shoulder, just staring off into space. Apparently the last time he’d looked forward he’d seen the big space in front of him, and was now killing time waiting for the light to change by just kind of idling forward. And since it was a big space, he just nonchalantly looked elsewhere while his bus inched forward. For whatever reason he didn’t hear my horn, and sure enough his right front bumper made contact with my left door. As he continued to inch forward, and I continued to blare the horn, the pressure of the bus began to lift up the left side of my jeep onto the rightside wheels. Still no notice from him. He finally stopped when the metal of my door began to screech, and perhaps when the forward momentum of his bus was stalled by my car.

He backed up, my car bounced back on all fours, and he opened the door as I rounded my car (postal jeep, righthand drive) and approached his bus. He starts yelling and screaming at me, asking me what the hell I thought I was doing.

!?!?!?! I told him what he had just done, but he insisted that I hit him. Even though he’d seen nothing. We argued for a minute, then he called back into the bus. The lone passenger was sitting at the very back, but after he told her what had happened, she agreed with him that she had “witnessed” me hitting the bus, and not vice versa.

As harrowing as the slow upward tilting of my car was, it was twice as upsetting to stand there and realize that I was fucked. The bus driver, who saw nothing, was going to lie to cover his ass, and for whatever reason–just randomly choosing sides, I guess–the “witness” was going to corroborate his lie. I was well and truly fucked, and had to just drive away with no recourse. Still enrages me a little to think about it.

29

The other day, I was slowly backing out of a parking slot, a bus was kindly reversing to give me space.

This woman comes round the bus, but also stops to give me space.

Then all of a sudden she starts honking her horn. I was like WTF??

Here I am about 12’ from your car, why the hell are you honking?

So I slowly continue reversing so I have space to clear the lot, and the crazy bitch is still honking? I mean, holy cow - you are driving a whacking great SUV - you think I’m blind or something and cannot see you or is it just that another car can’t come within 10’ of your oh so precious car with your baby inside?

…

Ok, so I’m exaggerating, but just a bit. maybe she did see you, and saw you stop and was mystified as to why you would be honking? After all she had seen you, and was going to stop maybe 3 or 4 freet from you?

30

This.

Reminds me of the time a guy rear ended me at a red light. The light had just changed, but when it was yellow I began to brake. I wasn’t close enough to make ot through the intersection before it would turn red. The guy behind me ignored my brake lights, I guess, thinking we coulod both make it through since he rammed right into my rear. There was no damage, but he jumped out of his car and started going on about how I shouldn’t have stopped.

A month ago some guy walked behind me as I was backing out of a parking spot. I saw him at the last second and stopped. He went off because I nearly hit him. I told him I honestly did not see him and apologized. He seemed so surprised that I wasn’t blaming him he just shrugged and walked off.

I’m more concerned with people on cell phones on the road. Almost every week I have at least one nimrod almost veer into me bcause they’re on the phone.

31

Well, when she finally did stop, she was a *maximum *of 3 feet from my car, and had not gained enough clearance to get out of the space. I also like to think our relative idiocy is demonstrated by the fact that I merely said, “Jesus, lady,” under my breath, while she jumped out of her car to scream at me. :slight_smile:

Also, as the other stories here demonstrate, everyone has what they consider good reasons for their behavior - but that doesn’t mean they aren’t batshit insane and/or totally negligent.

32

You have obviously encountered a Person of Great Importance. Were there any smaller vehicles orbiting her?

33

Late one night I was at a stoplight and the car in front of me was filled with teenage boys – six or seven of them. They were hanging out of the windows and the sunroof and they all gave me the finger.

So I flicked my lights at them.

For reasons I don’t understand, this angered them. I mean, if you randomly flip someone off, and he responds, you’re tied, right? That’s what you’d expect your victim to do. But they acted like it was a personal affront out of nowhere.

After some yelling, they pulled away when the light changed, then suddenly braked to make me brake. Then they threw it into reverse and back wildly toward my car, threatening to hit me. Then they did all of the above several more times, because they were teenage idiots.

I ditched them by turning unexpectedly without signaling. But a minute later, they came around the block and came at me again, and started following me.

I drove directly to the local police station and drove right into the parking lot. They started to follow me into the lot, then suddenly must have realized where they were, and the drive jerked the wheel and turned back onto the street and fled.

One consequence of their having backed toward me was my having written down their license plate number. The police called the car’s owner and learned that he had no idea his teenage son had taken the car. The police officer told me the parents sounded furious, and asked me if I wanted to take things any further legally, and I somewhat naively decided not to press charges. The kids from the car are probably serial killers now, of course.

Moral: even back when I was young I knew that if someone is following you in anger, you do NOT lead them back to your house. This is an absolutely ironclad rule.

34

Never been assaulted, but in my assholish youth, I had a couple of people try to follow me into places.

One of those guys, my co-worker and I were behind him at a light, turning left. We were just laughing and joking around, not paying the slightest attention to him. He turns into the left lane and drives 30mph in the left lane. Without the slightest thought, I moved into the right lane and started driving the speed limit, passing him. No big deal, we’re too busy joking around. But then he followed us several miles, honking, screaming, flipping us off, until I went into a convenience store. He attempted to follow us in, but by that time we’d had enough of that shit and the two of us convinced him to leave. With every other patron in hearing range diving for cover behind nearby objects expecting some kind of shoot-out. There was no violence involved, just a lot of screaming. And someone called the cops, but the guy was gone before they arrived and the officer was uninterested in two amiable guys in suits.

35

My latest adventure a few nights ago.

I was pointed west in the turn lane to go south. A chick in a huge SUV pulled in behind me. Then an extra long Semi came into the intersection heading south. He turned east onto a one lane area because of construction. But with his extra long trailer he couldn’t make the turn with me there. So I checked my mirror, and went into reverse. I could see I had about 6 feet of space so I backed up 5. The truck still couldn’t make it. The SUV in back of me just sat there for 15 seconds. I made a big display of shifting into reverse a couple times and backed up 6 inches, the truck moved 6 inches. She layed on the horn. I stopped and waiting another 15 seconds. and backed up three inches. She is now just sitting on the horn constantly, but not moving one damn inch, even though there was nobody behind here. I couldn’t move at all. There were cars in the lane to right the of me, a truck in front and the bitch in back. So I just sat there, at least one minute, the entire intersection blocked(except maybe a north to west turn. She was on the horn the whole time. Finally she banged on the dash, screamed something, then raced backward about 100 yards, and roared into a parking lot to cut the corner.

I backed up 15 feet, the truck made it through, and I had the green arrow, so I made my turn, and still made past it before the SUV twit got through the parking lot and on to the road.

36

A malicious metamorphosis happens to people behind the wheel. A really nice girl in my office turns into some kind of maniac behind the wheel, swearing, speeding, tailgating other people. I will never let her drive me out to lunch again :eek:

37

wolfman that’s almost the story I was going to tell. I was in the left turn lane going north, waiting at the light. A big semi from the local supermarket was making a left turn into the lane next to me going south. The cab passed me just fine, but the rear wheel was going to crush the hood of my car–there was no way he could keep going and not run over me. I had my small son in the back seat and I was in a panic. There were cars lined up behind me and cars in the right lane and I had nowhere to go. I leaned on the horn and I may have screamed, and he finally stopped with a couple of feet to spare. The driver to the right of me made a right turn, even though he hadn’t planned to, so I could pull into the right lane to get away. Probably one of the scariest things to happen to me in a car.

38

I was driving late at night once somewhere around the 405. The light was red, and there was a lady (using that term a little loosely) in her black car. The light turned green while I was looking for something that I had dropped. By the time I noticed the light had changed, it was already on yellow so I went along my way. Having to wait pissed her off to no end. She ran the light and cut me off. Not a big problem, she was probably just angry. Then she slams on her brakes and I stop with only an inch or two to spare. Anyway, I figured that was the end of it, but she did it again. Then I switched lanes, she cut me off and braked again. This went on for about 10 minutes. Half of which involved her going out of her way to get onto the 405 so she can continue it.

My car probably weighed 2 or 3 times as much as her little 2 door. I probably could have done some damage if I really wanted to. :slight_smile:

So yeah, sometimes they just are insane.

39

I really wish my best friend from elementary school had known this 15 years ago. He was shot & killed because he cut off some idiot with a gun who followed him him after the highway incident. :frowning:

40

You miss a whole light cycle because you are not paying attention, and then you start moving on a yellow? Sounds like you share part of the blame.