Wow…I’m still shaking! I was tooling down Rt 80 in Morris county,in the fast lane doing 70mph in a 65 zone.A black Acura I never even saw behind me flew by in excess os 90mph,passing me on the shoulder.I touched the brakes and moved partially into center lane to give him room to pass,since a bridge abuttment was approaching.The Acura driver also cut of 2 semi’s hauling oversized loads.
I being SLIGHTLY pissed off flipped him the bird and called him several names decorum prohibits me from repeating.A few miles down the highway I pulled off at an exit ramp to get gas.Who’s at the Exxon station?You got it…Psycho Acura driver.He saw me and came storming over,got right in my face screaming…“You give ME the finger? I outta kick your ass!!” Let me tell you…I’m not a small guy…(6’1’’ 210#) although I AM a bit out of shape.This guy was HUGE I’d say 6’4’’ 240#…and a body builder to boot.I was still pissed off,although a BIT reluctant to fight this guy.We proceeded to have an “in your face” screaming match for a minute or so.The Gas station manager came out and told Mr Acura to leave,that he had seen him start the altercation and that he had called the cops.Mr Acura QUICKLY got in his car and departed.
I stuck around to talk to the officers,who said they had received several complaints from other drivers on this guy.
Just had to share my experience of nearly being killed twice in 10 minutes by the same guy.Anybody else have a similar story?
Back in winter, I was waiting to cross the street. Traffic was bad, and the space betwen the lanes already had one car in it. I was waiting for that car to move out so that I could assume that space.
A guy in a little car honked his horn, pulled out from behind me, spun his tires on the snow and jumped in front of me into the median.
I honked my horn, to express my displeasure with his act.
When I was able to pull up behind him, he pulled his emergency brake, and jumped out and approached my truck.
I reached into the back, grabbed my baseball bat, jumped out and held it in samurai fashion, and asked him if he’d like to go.
He jumped into his car, and sped off.
I felt better after that.
My SO and I were once riding our motorcycles on a highway that was undergoing some construction, and instead of asphalt it was covered in some sort of gravel. If you’ve ever been on a motorcycle in such conditions, you’ll know that it really sucks. We were going about the speed limit, which was pretty low due to the construction. SO was in front of me on his bike, and I was riding my own. We were maybe a car length apart, and both in the middle of the road as it was the best area to ride on. Normally when we ride together, we try to stay tighter and in a staggered position, but it was pretty hard to do that due to the state of the road.
Without any warning, I was passed by a group of teenagers in a convertable. They didn’t actually move out into the other lane to pass me - they split the lane with me. For those of you who don’t ride bikes, this is EXTREMELY dangerous. I’m riding along, and suddenly I look up and there’s a car not a foot from my left arm. Had I been moving slightly to the left I’d have hit them, no question about it. They were going VERY fast - I had been looking in my rear view mirror not long beforehand and they were a spec in the distance.
They passed me, then pulled in between my SO and I and slammed on their brakes. They were then tailgating my SO. I was sick to my stomach watching them pull in - I thought for sure they’d hit him. After following him for a few seconds, they split the lane and passed him, too.
Sure enough, ten miles up the road when we stopped for gas, they were there. SO was holding me back since I really wanted to give them a piece of my mind. They were laughing and made some comment about driving, and I finally said something to them about nearly killing us. They shuffled their feet and sort of said “sorry.” Grrrrr… I wish I would have gotten their license number and reported them. I’m sure their parents would have been very interested in what they were doing with the convertible that day.
Hmm, a motorcycle, a gravel road, a bunch of idiots behind you in a convertable. Maybe I’m just evil, but I’d imagine a kid in daddy’s convertable would get real nervous as the paint job got beat to hell by some strategic motor gunning.
I’m a fairly new biker. I’ve only been riding for the past 18 months. I was on the last leg of my first long distance solo journey (Austin, TX to Nashville, TN and back).
It was near sunset and I was heading south on I35, between Dallas and Waco, doing the speed limit. There’s a car on the approach ramp, coming up to the expressway. I check my left lane, planning to move over and give the merging traffic some room. There’s a car behind, not too far, but far enough. So I signal, move over, pass the merging traffic and signal to move back into the right lane again.
Just as I’m moving over, the car that was behind me zooms past me doing at least 20mph OVER the speed limit (70mph in Texas) passing me on the right AS I move over into the right lane. I was within INCHES of his vehicle. I could have easy reached out and touched him.
I just let him (tinted windows so I don’t know anything about the jerk of a driver) speed on his merry way. It took me several minutes to stop shaking.
Goddess, where are these people going that require them to run the rest of us off the road.
My ex-brother-in-law just had the same kind of thing happen to him.
He was last in line at a single-lane road construction site, and the cars on his side had just been picked up by the pace car, but were still in the right lane. Some idiot came up at full speed and rear-ended him (sounds like the idiot tried to dodge at the last second and hit him diagonally).
His car was totalled against the guard rail, and he was whiplashed pretty badly. There’s no word on the idiot, but we can hope.
I am just thankful you are not posting about how your Jaguar was rear-ended by some long-haired putz in an Escort in North Carolina a couple of weeks ago…
Yer pal,
Satan
[sub]TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Four months, two weeks, 1 hour, 41 minutes and 39 seconds.
5442 cigarettes not smoked, saving $680.35.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 4 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes.[/sub]
"Satan is not an unattractive person."-Drain Bead
[sub]Thanks for the ringing endorsement, honey!*[/sub]
…So anyway I was driving my Jag down the highway a couple of weeks ago, when this long-haired freak in an Escort rear-ended me! The bumper was all scraped up… I hope that his insurance goes up so high that he can’t afford to drive, domestic-owning punk!
You mean like that, Satan?
This is why I do not drive.
…and Southern Style thinks we need to abandon mass/public transit systems. sigh
I got the chance recently to show my sister the effects of aggressive driving. While we were driving on the Long Island Expressway recently in heavy traffic, three tricked-out Hondas whizzed past us. They were quite obviously drag racing. I turned to my sis and said something to the effect of, “We’re going to go over the next rise and find one or more of those cars crashed into something.”
Sure enough, about five minutes later, we came across the wrecked remains of one of the Hondas (on its roof). Not only did the driver end up Darwinizing himself (it didn’t look like he could have survived the accident), but he also caused a huge rubbernecking backup.
It was a good education for my younger sis (still in college) and I gave her an earful about novice drivers not understanding the forces that are involved in a high-speed car accident.
The Washington, DC Metrobus system buses have been involved in 1,210 accidents so far this year. Not all were the fault of Metrobus drivers (some were caused by drivers rear-ending or attempting to pass buses), but that’s still a lot of accidents.
This happened on Sunday night:
A guy was walking across the street (a one way) and got hit by a car right outside of our apartment. Krissy (my roommate) and I ran outside (after calling 911) and the upstairs neighbor had put a blanket over the guy. His face was uncovered and the neighbor was hysterical, yelling “cover his face, cover his face” because he looked really dead. (There was a pool of blood under his head)
I found out that I’m not scared of dead bodies because I went right up to his face, moved his hair out of it and checked for breathing (to do CPR). But he wasn’t dead, he was breathing but unconscious. I started talking to him and he opened his eyes. The hysterical woman was still shreiking, so I told her to fuck off - in the future, if there’s an accident, and you’re freaking out, walk away from the scene - I was about to punch her.
The guy wasn’t able to talk (I think he was drunk, too) but he was sort of looking around and responding to my voice. Finally the paramedics got there and whisked him to the hospital. I don’t know if he survived.
As to what had happened: He had walked across the street (10:30 pm) on a “don’t walk” sign. The driver slammed on her brakes, but was going too fast to begin with - the tire marks were about 20 feet long. The guy flipped on the bumper, crashed into the windshield, bounced off and landing on his back in the street. The windshield of the car was totally caved in. Ouch.
My worry was that the driver wouldn’t even stop, but she was calm and really helpful. I feel bad for her, but I don’t think she got a ticket since it wasn’t (technically)her fault.
I know this isn’t really about aggressive drivers, but I think if the driver had been driving slower through our residential neighborhood, it wouldn’t have been as bad. It’s on my mind, too, I guess.
SanibelMan: I don’t believe that Jaguar makes a scooter version at this point, child.
Yer pal,
Satan
[sub]I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Four months, two weeks, 13 hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds.
5462 cigarettes not smoked, saving $682.77.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 4 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes.[/sub]
"Satan is not an unattractive person."-Drain Bead
[sub]Thanks for the ringing endorsement, honey![/sub]
Rich G7subs wrote, “…I was tooling down Rt 80 in Morris
county, in the fast lane doing 70mph in a 65 zone.”
Well, geewhillikers, Rich, it’s your own darn fault: You KNOW 65 mph is only a suggested minimum. Per Route 80 Rules, you were going at least 10 mph too slow for the fast lane. You poke along in the slow lane at that speed, and increase by 5-10 mph for each lane-shift leftwards.
As a friend quite seriously told me once, “If you’re only gonna do the limit, you have no business driving on Rt. 80. Use 46.”
Public Transportation, baby! The subway and I are old friends.
I don’t own a car and I would never drive anyone else’s car. I’m an extremely annoying, nervous passenger. I hate people who use their cars as weapons.
I never had a face to face altercation with a half-wit driver, but close.
I was pulling up to a toll-booth getting off the Maine turnpike. As I was nearing, maybe 100 feet or less, this redneck in a beat-up pickup screams by and pulls in front of me and slams on his brakes, just so he could beat me to the tolls. This was at 11pm - we were the only cars on the road. The toll was one where you just threw your 50 cents in the basket. How long did he think I was going to hold him up?
So, with my window down, and his as well, I scream at the top of my lungs, “ASSHOLE!!”
Now this redneck, who I could only assume was in some god-awful hurry, proceeds through the toll booth and stops to wait for me. I wasn’t going to get into a fight over this, so I just tool into the other lane. He swerves in front of me blocking me, pointing me frantically to the side of the road. I thumb my nose at him and pull into the other lane. He blocks me again.
So there we were, two idiots in the night going 10 miles an hour down an exit ramp, playing cops and robbers or something. After a while he got bored and sped off. He probably went home to beat his dog.
>>>>>Well, geewhillikers, Rich, it’s your own darn fault: You KNOW 65 mph is only a suggested minimum. Per Route 80 Rules, you were going at least 10 mph too slow for the fast lane. You poke along in the slow lane at that speed, and increase by 5-10 mph for each lane-shift leftwards. <<<
Naah,that stretch of 80 is particularly well patrolled by the State boys.((where are they when ya need 'em?)).I was doing 70…passing a bunch of semis doing 50 in the middle lanes…up a hill.Nobody was behind me for a hundred yards…this moron came from nowhere.
pldennison wrote:
The Washington, DC Metrobus system buses have been involved in 1,210 accidents so far this year. Not all were the fault of Metrobus drivers (some were caused by drivers rear-ending or attempting to pass buses), but that’s still a lot of accidents.
PLD: point taken. Wow, that is a lot of accidents! Something weird is going on in DC! 
But the point I was trying to make is, buses are driven by trained professionals. Their training makes for a safer ride. Making an alternate transit system available (as opposed to driving) to those drivers who, for whatever reasons can’t or shouldn’t be driving, would make the roads safer all around. Unfortunately, agressive drivers probably won’t take the transit alternative, but it should be available for those who do need it.
Southern Style seems to what his local transit system abolished because his taxes are paying for it, yet he’s not using it and it inconveniences him occasionally.
hell I’ve been passed on the right a number of times by idiot drivers. once on my bike some guy didn’t even get out of the lane onto the shoulder! and this was in a place he could have passed on the right! I turned him in to the state police.
But the worst one by far was some stupid woman when I was coming back the first time on my bike from DC and this woman was tailing me close enough that you can’t see her headlights in your mirrors, this means a couple of feet. plenty of room to go around me, no one else on the highway but she doesn’t go around. so I finally move out of her way and she starts tailing another guy in front of me. well some tractor trailer was stopped on the side of the road and people where slowing down. She hits this guy in front of her hard enough to a) push the guy into the car in front of him! b) totally distroy both her front end and his trunk and parts are flying. this happened about 30-40 feet in front of me in the other lane, out of four people on the road she had caused a pile up of THREE of them. I am SO glad I got out of her way because she would have killed me.
also a few weeks ago some guy passes me on the right on a one lane road going at least twice the speed limit, a 25 zone, then pulls over in front of me and slams on his brakes for the light. I honk and he starts getting REAL pissed, giving me the finger and stuff then gets out of the car. his wife pulled him back in the car, I really don’t know what I would have done.