Posted: 5/5/2005 8:01:06 AM EDT
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It has been a couple of years since this happened, so I hope the statute of limitations has run out. My wife was following me on the interstate out of town. We are passing a slow moving truck, and at the same time coming up on an onramp where a SUV is going to try to merge. My cruise control is locked, and my wife and I are in the left lane. The guy in the slow truck can't speed up to give the merging vehicle room to get in. And he can't move over because I'm there. This is a bad on-ramp because the traffic appears out of nowhere, and often you don't have time to make it easy for them to merge. The guy in the SUV must have thought he had the right-of-way, and tried to pass the slower truck on the shoulder until something must have blocked his path. The guy in the SUV merged in behind the slower truck, then immideately cut in behind my wife. As soon as we were clear of the slower moving truck, we moved to the right lane to allow the SUV to pass. Laws in Illinois require drivers be in the right lane unless they are passing. The SUV driver cut in right behind my wife, and flashed his high beams on and off and on and off. What the heck do we do? I didn't know if he saw that my wife was about to lose a tire, or if he was pissed for some reason. So I called my wife on her cell. We are doing 75mph in a 65 zone, we passed the slower vehicle as we should have. I didn't think he had any reason to be pissed at us. But my wife said he was flipping her off, and was only a few feet from her bumper. He was blinding her with his high beams, and he was moving back and forth across the lane. My wife believes the SUV driver thought she prevented the slow vehicle from moving over. Whatever. It is impossible to know what he was really thinking. He might have been on crack and was only thinking of the colors he was hearing. Regardless, he was overreacting to something really stupid. So... my wife tapped her brakes. Just enough to instantly go from 75 to maybe 70. Not enough that I even noticed it. Then she mashed the gas pedal to put more distance between the gaining SUV. A trick that she learned from me. That way if the tailgater would have hit you, they only get a rude awakening without actually hitting you. I've only done that a few times in my life, and always the guy doing the tailgating locks up his brakes, and you are long gone because you were speeding up. But the guy in the SUV did something really stupid. Rather than slow down, he jerked the steering wheel to attempt to pass. And what do you suppose happens when you steer sharply in an SUV, doing 75. Yep, he rolled the damn thing. It was pretty cool to watch in the rear view mirror. It rolled to it's side pretty gently, then the SUV turned until it was perpendicular in the road. Then it rolled over to it's top, and into the ditch. Sparks flying, but it looked pretty gentile. My wife panics, and starts to pull to the side of the road. A quick look, and the slower moving pickup that was pretty far behind us was catching up and he was pulling off to assist. I instructed her to keep moving. I invisioned a crazy asshole flying off the handle and killing one or both of us, blaming us for the accident. I know you aren't supposed to leave the scene, but I think we took the least threatening option. I'd rather a ticket for leaving the scene than have to deal with an ass. Especially when I had a gun in my car, and was mad enough to use it. I figured it was safer for everyone if we left the scene. Leaving the scene is no more illegal than leaving the scene and never reporting it. So we have just kept quite about it. A more recent accident proved to me that even though my wife's actions may have lead to the accident, he was in the wrong for following too close to avoid an accident, and aggressive driving. I went back after work, and looked at the area. You could clearly see where he tried to swerve, where the truck rolled over, and where it slid into the grass. No broken glass anywhere. It was a cold day, so his windows would have been up. Only a small piece of broken plastic molding. A few months later, I checked with the local court's online database thing they have. No citations were issued that day for that vehicle's description, or that location. I'd be willing to bet the guy told the cops a deer ran out in front of him. You usually don't get a ticket here for wrecking your car if you were the only vehicle involved, and you claim a deer scared you. Hope the guy didn't get hurt. Okay, I guess I just hope he didn't get hurt too bad. Hope the guy learned a lesson. Don't fuck with my wife. Illinos doesn't have gun laws which make people think twice before being a dumbass when they are driving. I'm noticing that agressive driving is getting worse and worse every year. Keep in mind that if you tailgate someone, any accident you are in is your fault. If the car ahead of you hits their brakes, and you hit them, the police and insurance companies agree it is YOUR fault. Throw in agressive driving, and you might have trouble keeping your license. Dave |
I have been known to do the "brake check" a time of two. Either pass me or get off my a$$. Honest officer a deer/dog/coon/etc. ran in front of me. The guy behind me did not have control of his vehicle and hit me. Musta have been following to close and not paying attention.
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The SOB must be from Los Angeles, I see shit like this every single day on the freeway. Everyone thinks they're a VIP around here. Tailgating, dodging in and out of traffic, cutting other cars off. My favorite is after applying a turn signal to change lanes, and then watching the car in the adjoining lane speed up to block the lane change. 
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You never reported it? How did you manage to sleep at night? Did you wonder if the cops were coming for you, based upon Mr. SUV getting the LP number? (What completely mystifies me are the people doing 10 under the speed limit or slower on a dry two lane road and they wonder why they're getting tailgated, so in the process of their brake check they STOP! WTF?) |
As a life long Californian I can tell you than mirrors and turn signals should never, ever be used on the frewways here SGatr15 |
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I had a similar experience of seeing something stupid go down like that on the road. I was leaving a movie theater one night and looking to pull out into the roadway. It was real late at night and no one was out on the road. I looked left, right, and left again and began to pull out. Just then, I see this VW bug barreling down on me. It had to be going about 75+ in a 45 zone. I remember saying to myself, "Oh shit" as I realized I was about to be t-boned. The bug veered suddenly away from me with less than 15 feet or so between our two cars. Bug lost control and did about three separate 360 degree spins across all the lanes of traffic for about 40 yards. I just sat there, disbelieving what I just saw. The bug didn't end up striking anything and the driver would have had no injuries. I said, "fuck it" and drove home. |
I used to carry pachinko balls, I had also thrown a few gas caps in my time. |
My wife was concerned about that, but I reminded her he probably couldn't find a pen OR read her LP number while upside down. And like I said, I knew we wouldn't be in any more trouble either way, so we decided to take our chances. Since no tickets were issued, the guy must have lied as to the cause anyway. Dave |
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I always just bump the car into neutral.....speed dies off pretty quickly, but no brakelights. Or my personal favorite, although it is rather rough on equipment (tires), and requires a good bit of space behind you: Move into the other lane and slow down a bit until there's no way jackass can get behind you again. Slap car in neutral, nail the brakes and lock 'em all up. Asswipe hears much squealing and all of a sudden you're not in front / alongside anymore. Of course, since you tend to slow a lot doing this, you need a LOT of space behind you. Also need straight road, as locking all four wheels up on a turn leads to no ability to steer, which isn't good if you're in a curve. Oh, and nothing pisses tailgaters off more than waving back with a bigassed grin on your face. Especially if they're cursing and flipping you off. You laugh it off, they get even more pissed. |
There was no contact so some goof in an SUV is going to give out any license plate number he remembers and you get in trouble for him not being able to drive? WHAT THE FUCK? Hey, I know whose fault it should be...the fucking SUV drivers fault! It's a single vehicle accident. |
That guy got what he deserved. He was driving like an idiot. Jeez, I have never even come close to rolling my Jeep while driving and acting like an idiot! Even if you did get questioned, all you had to say was that he was passing you on the shoulder, driving like a maniac, and apparently lost control. You didn't stop because he was honking and giving you the finger at the time and feared for your safety. |
