Tell your driving horror stories.

[Hawkeye-X]

All day I was driving on I-25 and there are a LOT of tailgaters on the left side of the road I was driving and I was 4 mph over the speed limit (59 at 55) - these schmucks decide to go over 75 mph in the city limits.

Oh and a shmuck cut me off FAILING to yield as I was turning to University (south-north) from 1st Ave (east-west), and I drove up and told him that he FAILED to yield (he didn't have the right of way turning from west to south - wife had to calm me down)..

Geez - they'll give anyone a driver's license and think it's a right to drive - it's not - it's a PRIVELEGE, PEOPLE!

:grr:

Hawkeye-X

[davsand]

1. Locally there was a cyclist killed by a girl downloading a ring-tone.

She was driving her car and downloading a freaking ring-tone. She never even stopped...

The state passed a law about "distracted driving" based on that case.



Laura

[raccoon]

18. I hope that cyclist's family got a good lawyer. nt

[KG]

2. you were being tailgated coz they wanted you to get out of the way.

if people want to drive 75, please let them. i'm one of them.

[Hawkeye-X]

8. Hell's bells - there were _5_ lanes - and they had to PICK the one

I'm driving in... and I prefer to drive safely, than to be sorry.

[Wcross]

23. You happened to be in the PASSING LANE.

Try driving in the right lane and you won't be having problems like that. You ever notice the signs that say "slower traffic keep right"? That would be you.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Um, the left lane is for folks who want to drive fast....

and pass slow drivers. If you're only driving 59, you're out of your mind for driving in it.

And people tailgate you to not so subtly tell you to move the hell over. Get in the right lane if you're only driving 59. You're going to cause an accident otherwise.

[alarimer]

5. No one has the right to speed

I don't care what lane they are in.

[Digit]

7. The law says slower traffic keeps to the right

I tend to go much faster than 4 miles over the speed limit, but I know that others may like to go 10-15 miles over the speed limit which I don't do anymore now that I am older.

I let them go. I am not the traffic police.
For all I know, they might have a severed finger in a baggie and be on the way to the hospital.

I just get out of the way.

[Hawkeye-X]

9. I just wish a cop would see what I'm doing

and give me a medal for it, while meeting/exceeding quotas of stupid drivers.

[MissMillie]

21. left lanes are for passing

I don't care if you're doing 60 or 160, if you're not passing, you don't belong in a passing lane.

[alarimer]

4. People here refuse to move over for merging traffic

I don't know if that is true everywhere but when I am trying to get on the freeway and someone is coming in the right lane, they usually do not move into the center lane in order to let me one, even if the other lane is completely clear. Now I know usually the law does not require them to, but it is simply common courtesy. Of course common courtesy is really not all that common these days.

Now a lot of people are going to give you grieve for being in the left lane and not allowing the speeders to proceed but I am one of those who thinks if you are going the speed limit, you can drive in any damn lane you please. Personally I try to stay in the middle ones in cities, to avoid the speeding assholes on one side and merging traffic on the other.

I fucking hate speeders anyway. There are never enough cops around and the stupid shitheads think they can go whatever damn speed they want, whenever they want. Fines ought to be much higher than they are or the penalties much stiffer.

[Critters2]

6. They do that here, too.

I've never seen people NOT get over to let you on the interstate, until I moved here. Assholes.

And I hate speeders, too. There is nowhere where people need to get to that's worth risking my life--or theirs.

[Hawkeye-X]

11. I always tell my wife that they are in a hurry

to get home to do some fucking...

:eyes:

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

15. I always figure they about to shit their pants

:shrug:

[Hawkeye-X]

10. Penalties should be $1,000

and your driver's license taken away. Meet the public transportation. We got plenty of 'em.

Hawkeye-X

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. Here, it is more dangerous for me to move over...

than it is to stay where I am and adjust my speed so mergers can fit between me and the other cars. It's simply too jammed up in the mornings. And I have to pass several exits on my drive.

And I DO let people in, easily and quickly.

[Digit]

12. Today, I was driving on a two lane road behind an old man

The speed limit (sunny day, dry conditions) is 55 on this country road, but this guy was doing 40 and would brake whenever he saw traffic coming in the other direction. I kept thinking he was going to turn off when he would brake, but no luck. When I would get the broken lines signifying I could pass, there would be traffic coming in the other direction, and my guy would speed up. Argh!

Finally! I was able to pass him then I ran into his twin who was also driving impaired, who also put the brakes on at odd moments. This is NC afterall, and the norm here....

I finally passed HIM as well.

I was still late for work, but I was at a mandatory meeting for work at one location and then had to get to the other location. They knew when I left and that it was not my fault.

[Droopy]

13. Being a trucker and all I have plenty of them

Several very bad ones involving death.

I used to drive a dedicated run from Dayton, Ohio to Toledo, Ohio and back every night. One December night we had a very bad snow storm. Everybody was cool on the way up to Toledo. People were taking it easy. On the way back the temperature dropped and the roads became icy as well as snowy. I counted about 10 jack-knifed trucks on the way back, most of them on the northbound side. I was praying that nobody would fuck up on my side because the north bound side was closed in two places due to wrecks and I just wanted to get home and get out of that shit.

I was heavily loaded and doing about 30 mph on the way back and everything was cool until I got to about 20 miles from Dayton. I then saw one of the most horrendous wrecks I've ever seen and it involved a driver for the company that I worked for.

Our driver was going home to Piqua with his semi when he jack-knifed just short of his destination and ended up stuck in the median. A cop was on the scene and everything appeared to be alright. The driver was not hurt and he sat in his truck waiting for a tow truck to come and pull him out of the median. He probably would have been cited for driving too fast for road conditions, but little did he know a fate much worse was closing in on him at about 60 mph.

A Canadian driver coming north up the highway was also driving too fast for road conditions. I estimate his speed at 60 due to the severity of the accident. He slipped in exactly the same place as our driver and jack-knifed as well into the median. The truck trailer was sliding perpendicular to the way our driver ended up with the cab of his truck facing south. The Canadian driver's trailer slammed broad side into the cab of our truck, taking the top half of the cab off and pushing the bottom half under his trailer. He hit our driver so hard that after he severed the cab he also squished our trailer about 20 feet. Our driver was killed instantly. The Canadian was unhurt, but you can bet his life is now a wreck. He probably got some jail time, definitely ruined his career, and I would say now has a very hard time living with himself if he is still alive. I know that I would become suicidal had I done something like that.

[fizzgig]

14. dude, i-25 is the pits

i can't tell you how many times i've nearly died (slight exaggeration) at the highway 34 interchange...especially getting onto southbound 25...left lane completely open, but those damn trucks won't get over

the mulberry/ault (highway 14) interchange isn't much better

but the worst ever, you ask? i'm west on 34 coming from yuma in a freaking blizzard (had to stop and knock the snow from my wipers every 15-20 minutes). i'm driving as fast as conditions would allow (30 mph or so) and i've got people tailgating me! they'd just roar up behind me and, rather than pass, would ride my ass until i pulled to the side of the road. (for those of you not familiar with this road, it is very, very desolate) i did get the point pretty quickly, tho, and would pull over for them.

[meegbear]

16. I recently had someone doing that ...

It was a good 8" of heavy snow and the storm warmed up, so it was raining. I'm on a 2 lane road with a 2 plows in front, clearing the roads. A pickup truck comes up and starts tailgating me, right on my ass the entire time. He'd rev up to try to make me go faster, but can't do it with the plows.

So we reach the end of that road, the guy speeds up, roars around me, then pulls into a Dunkin' Donuts for a fucking cup of coffee. Douche-a-bag.

[MissMillie]

19. All of my stories involve another driver who purposefully tried to get in my way

I will never understand it. Not ever.

[eyesroll]

20. My SO was rear ended by a drunk and should be dead right now.

The drunk was driving a Chevy Tahoe, and my SO was driving an old Civic hatchback with no airbags. The drunk hit him without even trying to stop; the Civic hit the car in front of it. My SO, who WAS wearing his seatbelt, hit the windshield. If he'd had a front-seat passenger, he or she would have been crushed by the dashboard. He was in the hospital for six weeks, and in outpatient daily rehab for a few months. Traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding, broke his face in several places, and lost most of the sight in his left eye. Seven years later, he still has trouble with his sinuses, and short-term memory, and is quick to anger when he's tired. (I didn't know him then, so I don't know what's different...but he is different, according to people who knew him before and after.)

The drunk apparently got out of his car, uninjured, and lit a cigarette at the scene.

I have no real horror stories of my own. Just run-of-the-mill idiots.

[DS1]

22. You know, if you'd just move the hell over and let the people speed

the cops would have an easier time ticketing them, wouldn't they?

Ever think about that?

Eh, doesn't matter, just move over.

[Wcross]

24. You really don't have a clue?

You had five lanes to choose from and you decide you need to be in the passing lane? Amazing.

[Mutley]

25. My scariest moment on the road was on northbound I-95 in Baltimore.

There are four lanes on this particular stretch of 95, and I was in the left. I was just passing the junction for I-695, which is a left exit, when a guy driving a tractor trailer in the lane immediately to my right suddenly decided he needed that exit. Now, he's going about the same speed as I am. Fast for someone driving a little sedan, CERtainly fast for a huge tractor-trailer. He barrels over across my lane and into the exit lane, barely managing not to run himself off the road. And I know he knew I was there, because before it happened, I could see him in his side mirror, which meant he could see me.

If I had not slammed the hell out of my brakes (thank you Honda for the wonderful, life-saving brake system!) he would have slammed into me at 80mph and run me into the embankment on the side of the road. I would almost certainly be dead. I didn't even regain enough of my senses to honk at him until he was almost gone. I had to pull over to the side of the road for twenty minutes before I was calm enough to drive again.