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07 April 2009

Most terrifying moment of my life


I was driving home from work today on the highway. Traffic is heavier than usual, and I'm minding my own business in the center center lane. Just before the highway split, a man in a gold Honda starts to drift over into my lane (coming in from the left) with absolutely no room. I honked my horn to alert him that I was there. He sped up a bit and made his lane change. There was still too little room for him to make it, so I beeped my horn again. At this point, Honda Man literally slams on his brakes immediately in front of me. The traffic is cruising along at 75 miles per hour and he SLAMMED on his brakes. Of course, to avoid a rear-end collision, I switched to right lane quickly and sped up on my way. I'm not about to get into a fight using 2-ton objects speeding along at 70+ miles per hour. Granted, I was at this point pist, but not stupid. I ignored his idiocy and kept going on my way. He speeds up so that his car is aligned with mine, and I'm pretty sure he was having some kind of screaming fit and trying to get my attention. Of course I don't even look in his direction, and I speed up to get around a vehicle in front of me. (I will freely admit to making a certain hand gesture to convey my annoyance.) I let it go, but then Honda Man comes speeding up beside me, this time on my right side. Again he cruised along side of me, perfectly aligned with my front windows. Again I'm confident that he was trying to get my attention and yell at me, and, again, I kept my eyes straight ahead and ignored him. He sped up again, moved in front of me, and slammed on his breaks again. Keep in mind, traffic is HEAVY. I have just enough room to cut around him again, and I speed up to lose myself in the traffic ahead of us. I just want to get away from crazy honda Man at this point. I can still see him behind me, jabbering away on his cell phone, but the distance between us is growing. 

Here is when it gets mighty scary. I make my exit off of the highway and look behind me to make sure that he is continuing along on his way. He gets off at the exit as well. To make the turn to my house, I need to cut across three lanes of traffic quickly because it's a very quick left. I do so, and I see him in the rear view sharply veer across all of the lanes to get behind me. At this point I'm sitting in a designated left-turn only lane (at a red light) while the traffic going straight has a green light. I quickly decide to switch lanes and take a different route home, cutting over to the straight lane and going through the green light. Honda Man quickly does the exact same thing. Now I'm shaking. I'm thinking, "Oh shit. This guy is crazy. He's going to kill me." I decide to head to a police station, but I actually don't know where the physical police station is located here. I decided that campus police will suffice. Meanwhile, I'm approaching a light that just turned yellow. I floor it and squeak under it just as it turns red. Honda Man blatantly blows through the red light to stay with me. I take the exit to get off the road, and he follows me there as well. I decide to turn left into traffic because I know that he won't be able to pull out immediately after me because he will have to wait for an opening. I looked back in my rearview and he was gone. Nowhere to be seen. The dude must have done a u-turn on the off ramp to get back on the main road.

I still continued on my way to the police station. I called The Boy and he told me to report it. I had no plate number or anything, but he wanted me to let someone know about it. I sat in the police parking lot for a few minutes, looking around and making sure the Honda was gone. I didn't see it, so I went inside and spoke to the cops. They told me that, without more information, they couldn't do anything. But they gave me the city cops direct line so if there is a problem or I see anything suspicious I could call. The whole way home from the cops I was looking around and checking to see if the Honda was anywhere near.

My stomach is still in knots. People are literally crazy. I mean, seriously. I beeped my horn at you for cutting me off and I flipped you off when you were freaking out. That warrants following someone in hopes that you could have a confrontation? What would he have done had he caught me? Yelled at me? Slapped me? Punched me? Knifed me? All because I beeped at him. I know that I can be a crazy, NY, aggressive driver, today I actually wasn't!! I was being a good girl!!! And dude went crazy!!! Today definitely counts as one of the most terrifying moments I have ever experienced. 

1 comment:

Kirsten Oliphant said...

Yikes! Road rage is a scary thing. Good that you're not in Texas--I recently saw someone pull a gun WHILE DRIVING during a road rage incident. Yeah, not good. I'm glad you're okay but wish the story could have ended with him getting arrested! I hate it when you're in the right and people screwing up the law get mad at YOU.

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