mrfritz44

Almost had my whole fishing year ruined Monday coming back from Ocean City, NJ. We're on 76 west, heading into Philadelphia on the way home. As I approach the bridge split - south to take the Walt, north to take the Ben, I decide to stray from the normal walt route and head north.

A small black Honda sedan decides she's going to do the opposite, except she decided about 30 feet into the painted line split.

She starts from my right, cuts hard left to make the other side and realizes there's a raised concrete divider. A hard left turn turned harder as she swerved to miss the curb. Now she's out of control off to my left front sliding farther left. Next she overcompensates to the right and is heading right for my hood. Thankfully she made the same mistake twice and overcompensated again to the left. This time her rear-end surrenders as she spins across two lanes into the wall.

I'm on the brakes as hard as I think I can get away with without forcing a rear end on myself. The windows are open and my young kids, wife and I get the full sensation of a near miss, from tire smoke and screaches to the last wall crack.

At this point we're already past the accident and on the opposite side of the split. I hope she was OK because stopping was not an option. I couldn't find any news updates so I imagine it ended in an insurance claim rather than an injury accident for her.

Kids got a lecture on the way home about the importance of not grab-assing in the car. I think they'll remember that one.

Be alert out there!

Fred

787337

That stuff amazes me all the time. Why doesn't anyone think, "Oh well I guess I'll get off the next exit make a U turn and try that again?

mobjack22

It is summer time, let the Jackassery begin!

fishinmaniac

Was towing my boat up the Sunshine Skyway earlier this year. Just as we reach the top this jackass infront of me in the left lane (I was in the right lane) decides he is going to cut off the guy driving directly infront of me . I couldn't believe it! Why the hell couldn't the guy wait till we were out of the stratosphere to pull that crap. I had a safety margin of maybe 20 yards or so infront of me but still, that will make you wake up really really fast. Luckily nothing happened but god it was scary.

centuarynick

oh let it begin i hate laws that make people immune from natural selection

skargo

AMEN, whatever happened to natural selection?

Back-in-Black

See it all day long, darn near every day. It's better to die than go to the next exit and back-track. Left hand turns from the right hand lane accross 3 lanes are a daily occurance here.

centuarynick

that whole law thing ruied it

welder

20 yards - 60 FEET is your safety margin [ I'm reading this that you are at Highway speeds ] while towing ?
In a car with GOOD breaks it takes about 150 feet to stop SAFELY from about 60 MPH.

G8RDave

Welder, I'm guessing he meant an extra 20 yards.

denny-o

The problem with leaving adequate space from the car ahead for stopping room, is that the non-culled herd will instantly shoot 3 cars into that gap... Back off again and whammo, full... Usually you just have to grit your teeth and stay tight...

denny-o

jwss

Second that!

jwss

Warning labels, government "safety commissions", OSHA, "modern" medicine and attorneys just waiting to sue when anyone gets "injured".

cgrand

anyone else ever daydream that you're cruising down the highway in a M1A1 Abrams, waiting for some twatwaffle yakking on a cell phone to cut in front of you on a four lane-sweep to the exit?

yeah...me neither...

Flot

What gets me is the cluelessness people display about giving tow vehicles a little respect. Not for my sake, for theirs.

I was towing along the interstate and crested a hill to find 80% of a semi tire right along the driving path of my lane. I'm not talking about a skin from the tread, I'm talking almost a whole tire. In the 2 seconds I had to think about it, I had visions of nailing this with not just the truck but also the trailer, the boat flying up into the air, blowing out a trailer tire, flinging the tire carcass into whoever was behind me, the trailer jacknifing and the boat bursting into a huge fireball as it rolled down the highway killing busloads of children and nuns, and who knows what else.

While it's possible that "nothing" would have happened it did not look like a good thing to just plow into. So I did a quick mirror check, swerved haflway into the left lane, then back into the right as soon as I passed the tire.

10 seconds later, the BMW sedan I cut off (and obviously did NOT hit with my outboard, as evidenced by the complete lack of a smashed windshield and decapitated passenger) flies up next to me, the woman driving screaming her fool head off, waving her arms around, and giving me the finger - then swerves into my lane and SLAMS on her brakes. Seriously. At 50 mph. A BMW sedan vs 11,000 lbs of SUV + boat.

About 8 feet from her bumper she realized that I wasn't slowing down as quickly as she was (physics, it's the law) and decided maybe she should speed up again.

The stupidity of some people is amazing.

skargo

Thanks for the new term!

Mr. Demeanor

twatwaffle?

Wikipedia had nothing on that????

Edd

denny-o is spot on here. If we take the added safety measure, in California, we would actually be going backwards.

Edd

looneytunes

The stupidity is not just limited to the highways. Last year I was towing my boat back home for some maintenance. Some lady is riding the tail of my boat in a 25 mph speed limit area. I am afraid that her reflexes won't be good enough to stop before impaling her car on my outdrive.

So now, I am slowing down to make a left turn into my drive way. The dumb ass biatch must have been blind. I had my left signal on as I slowed. I start making my turn into the drive way and she stops just short of the side of my hull. She wasn't paying attention to my signal and speed so I guess she swerved to the left to avoid hitting my outdrive that she was riding right on as I turned left. Now, this is rich, she roles down her window and start calling me an effin this that and the other thing. When she left, I double checked my lights and signals, THEY ALL WORKED PROPERLY, gee I wonder who the effin this that and the other thing really is?

LooneyTunes
Dave
PS> Can't blame me, I didn't vote for "him"

fishinmaniac

Going up a bridge in traffic that is going 50 MPH yes about 20 to 30 yards if I were to guess.