Road Rage/idiots with guns

[Brian Roth]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/us/florida-road-rage-shooting-charges/index.html
Egads. And my elderly Mom can't quite understand why my 4 hour drive (each way) and time spent driving/visiting her in Okla. City (my home town) makes me a nervous wreck. And no, I don't have plans to engage in gunplay on the freeway. The 18-wheelers swerving around are plenty scary enough!

Reminds me of a Harlan Ellison short story "Along the Scenic Route" (written in 1969 and in one of my Ellison story collection books). Cars in that dystopian "near future" are equipped with machine guns, missiles, etc. and are sanctioned by the state to have duels to the death on the highway. I need to dig out that Ellison book and read the story again. Shudder........

Bri

 

[pucho812]

Whenever I hear something so outlandish in the news for some reason Florida is the first state to come to mind

 

[scott2000]

Yeah it's really bad here.... I'd probably stay away just to be safe....

 

[JohnRoberts]

Yeah it's really bad here.... I'd probably stay away just to be safe....

yup... back when I lived in NJ we used to joke that the NJ Turnpike was routed through the meadowlands (swampland) so that out of state tourist would keep driving and go to another state.

JR

 

[pucho812]

Yeah it's really bad here.... I'd probably stay away just to be safe....

. I mean all the really weird stuff seems to be Florida. Like calling emergency services because they ran out of chicken nuggets at McDonald’s

 

[Brian Roth]

Oklahoma has it's bunch of fools as well. I wish I could find the news article and dashcam footage, but earlier this year one moron decided to side-slam and push another vehicle into the center concrete barrier on a freeway down there in OKC because the madman/idiot driver got pissed off. IIRC, both (pretty new) vehicles were totaled....but no death. Wish I could find that article/video again.

Looks like Florida isn't even on THIS list:

https://kfor.com/news/local/survey-oklahoma-ranks-4-among-states-with-the-worst-road-rage/
Bri

 

[Brian Roth]

I have a theory about this. Unless you have a legit reason (such as being a building contractor, etc) the only reason for driving a big truck (Ford F-350 extended cab) or a huge SUV (Escalade, Expedition, etc) is simple:

Big truck = Small d!ck <g>

The women driving the monsters are even worse....paraphrasing Fred Rogers..."Can you say Karen?" <g>

Apologies to folks here with a sane mentality that safely drive the monster trucks. I pity the folks driving smaller cars these days.

It's just scary for an aging man like me who drives safely and semi-obeys the laws in his old Ford Taurus. Yes, I DO drive in the right/slow lane on the interstate if I'm only driving 8-over the speed limit (ie 83 MPH on a 75 MPH highway). I regularly see cars (Texas plates often) fly past me....maybe 90 or 95 MPH?

Tonight, I found the book I mentioned earlier.... I re-read that 1969 Harlan Ellison short story again because he was foretelling driving situations in 2022 and beyond.

Dreading my four hour drive next week to see Mom. I hope to survive once again.

Bri

PS, in this area, UPS and others use these scary truck assemblies with three "short" trailers pulled behind the big diesel truck. They weave all over the highway even in low wind conditions.

 

[Brian Roth]

Why I hate driving in this area:





Bri

 

[AnalogPackrat]

California has the worst bad/crazy/aggressive drivers per mile driven of any state I've visited. I drove across most of the I-40 corridor plus I-5 plus various parts of the Southeast three times last year, twice in big moving trucks.

But I will say there seem to be more big rig drivers either undertrained, inattentive, or pharmaceutically enhanced than there used to be. Saw a few really scary maneuvers by some truckers during my trips.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I've encountered bad drivers in every single state I ever drove in... If memory serves TX used to be notorious for road rage incidents ending in gunfire, but that was years ago. These days I expect the trend to show up in more regions following the general decline in civility.

JR

 

[Rusan]

California has the worst bad/crazy/aggressive drivers per mile driven of any state I've visited. I drove across most of the I-40 corridor plus I-5 plus various parts of the Southeast three times last year, twice in big moving trucks.

But I will say there seem to be more big rig drivers either undertrained, inattentive, or pharmaceutically enhanced than there used to be. Saw a few really scary maneuvers by some truckers during my trips.

I've noticed the same thing, during several long interstate trips over the past few years to visit my wife's family. Just two days ago, my wife and I almost got wiped out on I-40 here in Arkansas by a truck that suddenly changed lanes without warning, just as we were starting to pass it. The same thing happened to a friend of mine in Texas back in April, except for the "almost" part. A big truck basically "PIT maneuvered" his pickup, causing it to flip several times. Miraculously, he survived but was badly injured. His spinal injuries have left him permanently disabled; some days he's pretty much unable to walk.

I knew about ten truck drivers back in the late '80s and early '90s, and all but three were on meth and were absolutely crazy. Two of the three who weren't were older relatives of mine, who'd been driving big trucks for decades. The other worked for a local trucking company that that provided free meth for its drivers, which he refused to use. His wife told me his boss once made him take a baggie of meth home with him, which she immediately flushed down the toilet.

I've fortunately only witnessed obvious road rage a couple of times, and thankfully never was a victim. Once was when a car pulled over in front of another in traffic, and got dangerously close to clipping the other car's front bumper. The car that was behind immediately whipped into the other lane, stomped the gas pedal to the floor, and did the same thing to them. But, that was the end of it. Another time was two obviously very angry people racing down I-40 at very high speed, who quickly went out of sight.

My wife lived in Indianapolis for several years, where she said road rage was an absolute epidemic. Upon my first visit to Indy, I was shocked to see anti-road rage billboards EVERYWHERE, which were posted by the State of Indiana.

Oklahoma has it's bunch of fools as well. I wish I could find the news article and dashcam footage, but earlier this year one moron decided to side-slam and push another vehicle into the center concrete barrier on a freeway down there in OKC because the madman/idiot driver got pissed off. IIRC, both (pretty new) vehicles were totaled....but no death.

Back when we used go to Fort Smith (situated on the Arkansas - Oklahoma border) often and the speed limit on I-40 in Arkansas was 65, we'd always see plenty of cars with Oklahoma plates driving about 95 mph, insanely weaving around cars as they passed them. It always made us nervous. I suspect it was perhaps because they were accustomed to driving on the many high-speed toll roads in Oklahoma, which Arkansas doesn't have. I also saw many such Okies pulled over by Arkansas State Troopers, who no doubt gave them a friendly, gentle reminder to slow it down a bit.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I don't drive as much as I used to (my car does have >100k miles on it). In my experience truck drivers are better drivers than car drivers, but trucks can make bigger messes when they screw up. I used to see lots of trucks on the interstate at night who were probably half asleep from driving too long without a sleep break... they would hang in the fast lane of the 2 lane interstate and cruise just at the speed limit. It is legal to pass them on the inside if they don't yield but I would flash my high beams to hopefully wake them up... A fraction of them would not respond to my high beams and I preferred to be in front of the potential crash rather than right behind them. The good news is that I could pass them pretty quickly reducing my exposure to a lane change conflict.

The worst car drivers I saw were back when the limits were reduced to only 55mph... Life isn't happening fast enough at 55mph on modern roads to require complete attention and I've seen drivers reading newspaper or books while they were driving. Once while up in CT I recall driving on a 2 lane interstate, I noticed that the lane ahead was closed off for road maintenance. I make a habit of not only looking at the vehicle ahead of me, but checking the lanes ahead of him... I recall one car driver paying zero attention to the road as he was rolling right next to a big truck.... When he discovered at the last second that his lane was closed off he veered right into the trucks back wheels... The truck didn't even bump but it messed up the dumbass driver's car... Since the truck driver didn't even notice I followed him off the highway two exits later and flagged him down. I told him what had happened but at this point there was not much to do about it. His truck tires were not even cut.

I always work to make sure truck drivers see me when I'm passing them. If I am passing at a rate much faster than they are going I will keep my left turn signal blinking, and sometimes I will blip my high beams (like they do on the autobahn when approaching slower traffic from behind.). If there are cars on the shoulder up ahead I give the truck room to shift over one lane for safety. If a truck is passing you common courtesy is to turn on your head lights to signal the truck driver when he has room to pull into your lane. Not sure how useful that is with modern cars that have always-on head lights.

JR

 

[scott2000]

Always a pleasure to get lucky enough to drive with a pack of people/vehicles that are in sync with courtesy and knowing the rules. Pretty rare but still happens now and again.

 

[Rusan]

Life isn't happening fast enough at 55mph on modern roads to require complete attention and I've seen drivers reading newspaper or books while they were driving.

My brother lives about 30 miles from his workplace, and all but a few miles of his commute are interstate highway. He daily sees the ubiquitous texting and women applying makeup, and sometimes sees people reading books and newspapers, typing on laptops, and looking at netbooks or tablets. And, the occasional road rage.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, over 3,100 people were killed and about 424,000 injured in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2019. About 1 in 5 of these fatalities were not in vehicles―they were walking, riding bicycles, or otherwise outside a vehicle.

It just so happens that the Arkansas State Police announced on Friday they're initiating an operation targeting texting drivers beginning tomorrow, October 17, called “U Drive, U Text, You Pay.” The operation reportedly is a coordinated one that also involves all county and most municipal law enforcement agencies in the state. The fine for the first offense is $250, which doubles to $500 if it's in a construction zone or causes an accident. The second offense is $500, with the same associated doubling to $1000. Ouch.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I've made this observation before but 99.99___% of drivers we share our roads with are already pretty well behaved.

Imagine the chaos if people couldn't be trusted to stay on their side of the road. Head on collisions even at modest speed would be like crashing into a wall. People are sometimes discourteous at the margins, and we tend to remember the bad drivers, not the good.

JR

 

[scott2000]

99.99___% of drivers we share our roads with are already pretty well behaved.

Further proof that we can actually all get along sometimes...

 

[JohnRoberts]

Further proof that we can actually all get along sometimes...

We actually do. This is the crazy political campaign season where the manipulators try to divided us apart amplifying minor differences.

I realize I am an unrepentant optimist, but thats the way I roll.

JR

 

[3nity]

I'm a truck driver for a living and quite often out of nowhere I got the middle finger treatment maybe just because it's a long vehicle and slowly.takes off specially when loaded and or on busy hours..imagine a truck smacking a 4 wheeler..

 

[JohnRoberts]

I am repeating myself, but in my experience truck drivers are generally better/safer drivers than most automobile drivers. Perhaps because they have to.

I can't wait for self driving cars/trucks to be implemented. In my judgement the technology is almost ready, but we as a civilization may not be ready.

I really wish I had a self driving car (or horse) back when I was still partying like it's 1999, but it isn't 1999 and I don't roll like that anymore.

JR

 

[pucho812]

For a stint of a couple of years, I had to drive down I405 Monday - Friday. For those that are not familiar it’s your typical interstate highway full of cars during rush hour which depending on time of day could be at speed limit or could be at super slow speeds.
I have seen some bad drivers. The worst that comes to mind was a car in the lane next to me. We are traveling at 65. Miles per hour and the car rolls over the line into my lane multiple times. Luckily they were just ahead of me enough that we never hit. When traffic starts to slow down I get to pull up next to the driver who had no hands on the steering wheel because they were eating a bowl of cereal. One hand holding the bowl,the other working the spoon