Friday, October 13, 2006

Road Rage Near-Miss

I'm not proud to admit that on my drive to work this morning, I was almost overcome by a fit of road rage.  No cuss words nor obscene gestures were given,  but they could easily have.  I was going down Cane Run Road, about half-way to work, and I heard a car honking.  I looked in my rearview mirror and side mirrors, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  The honking continued, and the road rage started.  I kept on driving, and I noticed the car behind me, and hold hoopty, pull over in the lane next to me, and sped up so he was right next to.  The driver rolled his window down and motioned for me to roll mine down.  The road rage was now a bit stronger.  I wanted to yell out the window "WTF?" but I resisted.  In case you didn't know, I spilled orange juice on the console in the BMW where the switches are to power windows, and now my front passenger window won't go up or down because it's gunked up.  Having said that, the honking driver was in he lane to my right, so I couldn't roll down the front passenger window to see what he wanted.  I looked over in his direction as he was yelling something and then waved, as if to thank him, and then drove on.  Once again, I looked in the rearview and side mirrors and nothing seemed wrong; I didn't see any flames shooting out from the car, nor was there any smoke, so I figured it was safe enough for the remaining two miles to get to work.

I pulled in the parking lot, and got out to survey the car.  I expected to see the trunk open or maybe a tire almost flat. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the little door to the gas cap was open. I'd left it open last night when I got gas.  The driver was simply trying to tell me that the little door was open - he wasn't trying to yell at me or anything; he was just being a kind driver.  I sure was glad that I didn't flip him off.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately I don't think the driver I recently encountered was as "helpful" as the one who was honking at you.

Someone driving VERY fast in a little red BMW thought I should have let him merge onto I-65 in front of me.  I didn't accelerate, but I didn't slow down  either, and I couldn't switch lanes, it was rush hour and the traffic was very heavy.  The driver merged in behind me then sped up and got beside me.  I didn't look over, but I'm guessing he was flipping me off.  Then he gunned it and swerved over in front of me and slammed on his brakes, coming TO A DEAD STOP.  Yes, a dead stop during rush hour on I-65.  This caused me and all the cars behind me to have to stop suddenly. After that, he gunned it again and cut over all three lanes into the fast lane. Luckilly no one wrecked, but this could have been a very dangerous, even deadly situation.   I truly felt like this person wanted harm to come on me so I quickly exited as soon as I could.  

It just goes to show how angry people are and you never know who you're dealing with.  I consider myself a nice and good person and I could have easily had my two small children in the car with me.  This guy doesn't even know me, but his reaction to his instant rage could have killed people, all just for not letting him merge when he thought we should have.

We all feel frustrated from time to time when driving out there in the jungle, but people should try to be more like you, Puddin' and take a deep breath before they freak out and go off on someone!!

Anonymous said...

This is yet another reason why the Divas will be packin' in the very near future.