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if NOT pulling out in front of someone on the highway, or NOT pulling out in front of the only car on the road instead of waiting 5 seconds, or NOT moving over to the left lane as someone is trying to merge onto the highway is "superior European driving skills" then heaven help us all. I fail to see what is so unbelieveably difficult in operating your automobile in such a fashion as to NOT force another road user to have to brake, swerve, or accelerate to avoid hitting you. I'm not talking about being able to do a perfect rev-match downshift, or being able to heel-toe shift, or even being able to drive a standard transmission. I'm just talking about having enough consideration and respect for others on the road to drive in such a way as to minimize your impact on them, rather than totally ignoring it. I never said the guy was "right" to go as far as he did. however, I have been in situations where I could FULLY understand his anger. Maybe a lot of you have never been in a situation where the other person is FULLY aware of the fact they are cutting you off, and do it repeatedly. I have had this happen to me several times in my Jeep. A person(actually it is almost ALWAYS a woman, go figure) will be doing somewhat under the speed limit. I will come up to pass them(no one in front of them, open road, no stop signs ahead, not turns, nothing) and signal and move into the other lane to go by them. They will then proceed to speed up 10, 15 or more mph to match my top speed in the Jeep(basically 70-75 w/o a mile+ run up) and sit there pacing me, with me in the lane of oncomming traffic. Then, at the last second I will be forced to LAY on the brakes and swerve behind them, where they will promptly reduce their speed back down to 5 under the speed limit. I will try again, and they will pace me again, and force me behind them again. I've had ppl do this to me WITH THEIR KIDS in their vehicle. How is this "my fault"? And it has happened many times, not just once or twice. I'm not saying the woman did exactly that, but I have been in enough situations to know ppl(women, even) will pull this kind of crap. I have been so livid I couldn't even see or think, so I can definitely see that the guy could have been pushed over the edge. He did not physically touch the woman tho. I have gotten out of my vehicle and gone ape on someone before. I was in the Jeep(this stuff ALWAYS happens to me in the Jeep for some reason) coming home from a 10 hr day and my 75 mile trip each way. There was no traffic in front of me, and a minivan was running with me at 5 over right behind me. There was some road construction, and the side of the road was all torn up and was just dirt(read NO traction) and cones lining the road. As we are coming up to the crest of this hill, there is a pickup truck and a station wagon perpendicular to the road, waiting to pull out from between the cones onto the road. As I get closer, 3 cars crest the hill coming the other way and I am closing on the truck waiting to pull out. Of course he has no signal on…… the 3 cars *just* pass the truck as I’m about to meet him, and he decided to try to make the left in front of me…… I stood on the brakes to the point of lockup, then modulated them and had them small skid-traction-small skid-traction, basically modulating the brakes so they didn’t lock up to get maximum braking force. I missed the left rear corner of his truck by maybe 6 inches. I have no idea how the minivan avoided rearending me during this…. And at that exact moment, the woman in the Escort wagon pulls out into my lane RIGHT there. I was still doing probably 35-40mph and on the brakes as much as they would go without skidding. I mean she started moving with the truck and followed his bumper out into the road in front of me. I had at LEAST 35-40mph more speed than her, and she pulled out POINT BLANK in front of me. I mean ZERO gap. There was nothing in the world I could do to avoid just slamming into her hardcore but swerve. So I did. Into the oncomming lane with NO SHOULDER, over a blind hill, heading west into the sun and a several hundred foot drop off at about 45 degrees down into a valley. I had to swerve so hard my passenger side wheels left the ground, I don’t know how I didn’t roll. I overcorrected and slammed back down and almost got the driverside wheels off the ground and nearly sideswiped her full on as I tried to regain control. I came *THIS* close to rolling who knows how many times down that hill, or worse yet, could have had a head on collision with another car. It was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe what had just happened in that instant. Then, as you go over the hill there is a long downhill stretch and a stoplight about ½ mile ahead. I pulled up to the light, and the woman was dumb enough to pull all the way up to my bumper. The minivan pulled up and blocked her in. I lept out of the Jeep and went freaking APE on this woman. I didn’t lay a hand on her, or her car, but I went off for a looong time. I mean I sat through several lights screaming and jumping up and down and going nutsand flipping her off. ALL the people behind us had seen her pull out in front of me and the Jeep get airborne on one side, and me nearly die. Not a single person even honked their horn once. Not one. I drove for the next 30 miles before I realized I hadn’t even turned my stereo back on, lol. Another time I was in town driving 40mph and in the left lane passing a car. The car decides he wants to go to Arby’s 4 lanes across on the other side of the street and doesn’t bother looking next to him as he is about to miss the turn, and just yanks his wheel to the left exactly as I was even with his door. I hit the brakes and swerved into oncomming traffic hard enough to get the wheels off the ground again.(you get this sickening feeling in your stomach as the Jeep passes the point where the tires are on the ground, and you feel the jolt as they come down again, only had it happen these 2 times, but it was terrifying). I couldn’t tell you if that was a guy or a woman, it happened too fast. So, my point is that we don’t know what that woman did to the guy to piss him off. Perhaps he was overboard in his actions, but I have had WOMEN and even women w/ KIDS in the car pull stuff like I described above, knowing full well what their actions could bring upon them. I’m sorry that most of this forum apparently thinks mindless driving and cutting ppl off, etc is acceptable driving practice. But until you KNOW what the woman actually did, quit acting like I am some “irrational” person just because I can empathize with the guy. Some things you don’t just ignore and walk away.
Mike ------------------------------------------------------
 
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11:57:51 03/20/02
