I simply don’t understand this. If you try to “teach someone a lesson” on the road, do you really think someone is going to go “Oh, I guess I was being a bad driver by (fill in the blank here). I’m going to be a better driver from now on, gosh-darnit!”
Accidents happen because of the usual tailgating, slowing down because someone was tailgating, people not slowing down for someone who turned in front of them who probably shouldn’t have, etc…
And at worst, you could by trying to teach a lesson to someone who is a lunatic and might kill you, or your family. Why take the risk? Why is it it so important to do this in such a vulnerable situation?
It’s the overwhelming need to be right. And if we “show that guy”, then we feel better. Even though he may or may not have been “shown” (or noticed he was being “shown” at all, as in “Whoa! He honked at me! Guess that’ll teach me!”).
That’s what I’ve only recently started to realize. That dickhead who’s roaring up behind me in the left lane when I’m already doing 5 miles over the speed limit isn’t going to realize he’s wrong when I don’t speed up to suit him. It’s not worth generating stress and hostility. It feels like you’re giving in/enabling the assholes, but getting out of their way just makes things so much easier on everyone. It’s that inital need to repress the urge to be right that’s the toughest part, but driving is far less stressful once you get past it.
Why do people need to teach a lesson the road? I guess it’s because that’s where you find the preponderance of stupidity in this world. Kind of like the folks who think that going 5 mhp over the speed limit is your ticket to be in the fast lane, instead of knowing that you get the fuck over if someone else is going faster.
One day, in heavy traffic, I saw an unmarked police car that had pulled over someone on the highway. The business had been concluded, so the cop edged out into the lane so that the person he pulled over would have a clear path into the traffic. I thought that was nice and considerate of the cop, since he is a cop, and the guy just got a ticket.
Anyway, this big Navigator decides it doesn’t think this car that is edging out into the lane should get to do that, and proceeds to turn into him, ostensibly to intimidate this little red Chevy Impala into going back on the shoulder where he belongs. You know, teach this bastard a lesson. I didn’t see much after that other than a VERY pissed State Trooper with a lame ass Navigator driver in the back seat of his Impala. I doubt Mr. Intimidation is going to be driving anytime soon.
Moral of the story: Pissed off drivers get theirs eventually. Sooner or later, you take the wrong person to your driving school, and then you go to school yourself.
So many people do not understand that there is a difference between right and dead right. 
The human brain really only wants two things, to survive and to be right. And unfortunately it will often give up life to prove it is right.
Case in point. Traffic circle in Tulsa Okla. ( Admiral Blvd. And Mingo Rd. ) Vehicles in the circle have the right of way and vehicles entering the circle have the yield sign.
Young girl in a tinfoil roller skate in the circle is making eye contact with me in my large, fast moving, yellow 4 X 4 with big black brush guard and I’m so ugly it can be seen from a long ways away. We were on a collision course if I did not slow down. ( which I fully intended to do but she could not know that) She looked away and never looked my way again!!! She had no idea what I was doing. I kept watching her and could not believe she was not going to check my position. I held my speed just out of curiosity and she still did not look. Her brain was willing to let her die just to prove itself right. I just swept in behind her and I don’t think from watching her that she ever did look at me again, even in her mirror.
I have seen drivers, pilots, bikers, hunters, all kinds of people do these things and some of them have died.
We are so sure of our righteousness that we refuse to accept that we could be wrong much less harmed by our actions. People do die over this.
So, the "I’ll teach them/ her/him many times happens without forthought.
New pilot, “Hey Gus, how did you develop so much good judgement in your flying?
Gus, “By listening to old pilots and surviving my bad judgement.”
My driving mantra is “Let the assholes go.”
I understand the urge to “teach them a lesson,” but it’s a whole lot easier on my blood pressure to let them go. If you want to go faster than me THAT badly, go. Just get the hell out of my sight.
My take on it is that teaching someone a lesson is reckless driving, and only poor drivers engage in it. So it’s better to have them in front of you, where you can keep an eye on them, than behind you.
Thanks for that post, Ryle, I’ve run into invisible accidents many times and wondered what was up with them.
Ryle Dup, that was pretty fascinating. There were some other interesting topics there, too. Some answering my questions.