There are some really bad drivers on the road. Luckily, they usually make themselves obvious and you can steer clear of them (literally and figuratively). Unfortunately, there are also drivers that go out of their way to be annoying.

This morning there was this guy on 17 that was of this latter type. I was in the left lane, with plenty of cars to my right. I was going a wee bit fast considering it was raining -- about 60-62 mph. And this guy comes plowing up from behind and tailgates me -- he was literally about 4-6 feet off the rear of the car.

I could have tapped my breaks and had him nail me -- not in my best interest.

I come clear on the right, but he breaks around me (now going much too fast for the weather) not even checking to see if I'll get over. He then charges ahead, swerves back into the left lane (he's not using turn signals, either -- remember, it's raining). The proceeds to do the same thing to the next guy, also getting _way_ too close for any driving conditions, but dangerously close for the weather.

Then he slows down and gets back in front of me. Turns on his signal to exit off to the left (it's a highway, not a freeway) and slows down to about 15 mph -- right in front of me! Cars behind me had to swerve around me, coming incredibly close to hitting me.

He was _obviously_ doing this to be annoying.

Unfortunately, and I can't totally explain this, all I could think about for the next 10 minutes was that I wish as soon as he'd done that I had swerved around him and watched as the surprised driver behind me plowed right into him, sending him into oncoming traffic with a big semi there to plow him down. All because he wanted to go 75 mph in traffic already going 60-65 mph in the rain in an area where the speed limit is 50 mph for cars and 35 mph for trucks.

But then I realized too many nice (read: innocent) people might get hurt in the process. He seriously got me riled. Of course, I've realized that by me simply slowing down for him I actually probably prevented a big wreck.

*sigh* Oh well. Traffic was really light this morning so the rest of the drive was fine (and quick).

Posted by Shane on February 18, 2005 10:22 AM | Permalink