I was driving home from work on a busy 3 lane freeway in the *rain* a few days ago. I was approaching an S turn bridge over a river. I was in the far left lane and I had been staying perfect with the flow of traffic in my lane. There was a semi-truck in the middle lane and a diesel dualie behind him. It's never a good idea to be on the outside corner of a semi going around a turn, but I never made it to that point. The middle lane was going slightly slower than my lane because of the semi slowing down to go around the turn.. As soon we started into the sweeping curve to the left.. my front bumper had just passed the rearend of the dualie.. when out of nowhere he whipped into my lane in an attempt to clip my frontend and spin me out of control. If he would have made contact it would have caused a very serious, life threatening accident. I'm sure it wouldn't have scratched his vehicle and he would have kept driving. If he wanted over all he had to do was put his blinker on before I was next to him and I would have let him over.

Well, you're probably thinking how do you know he did it on purpose? Well... I didn't at first. I narrowly avoided the initial collision by an inch(literally), but it soon became obvious that he was still trying to hit me. I have no idea what I did to **** this guy off. Thanks to the superb braking and handling of the Z, I managed to avoid him even though we were going around a turn, it was raining, and I initially had very little response time. It all happened so fast. I had to get back on the road because I was running out of shoulder even though I was still right behind the guy.... as soon as I got balanced out I was just about to brake hard when the ******* beat me to it!! I slammed on my brakes very hard while maintaining perfect control of my car and I put a considerable gap between us. I checked my mirrors and blindspots which were clear and I revmatched to 3rd. As the long sweeping left was about to turn back sharper to the right, I passed the entire group of vehicles in an extreme fury. I was in the far right lane when I passed everyone. I got away from the situation before he could do anything else.

What gives? Are people seriously this jealous?

 

hmm how do you know he did it on purpose though? i must've missed something.. cause it was raining and he was driving that big vehicle. just wondering cause i give truck drivers the benefit of the doubt or what not when they do some "bad driving"... cause after all, it's really hard to drive semi's.

 

Wow. I'm glad you're okay. That's the important thing, right?

Anyway, as far as the dualie is concerned, maybe he was just a really bad driver??? Hmm, maybe this is why the other Z drivers I met carry guns with them in their cars. Personally I try never to be next to or behind any suv or trucks since, from my experience, they tend to be more "agressive".

At least you are okay and the Z is okay too. Just take a deep breath and enjoy the rest of your life, heh.

 

superstuddc27: Sorry I wasn't very clear. It wasn't the semi who did it....if you read closer it was the redneck driving the diesel dualie behind him. Considering I *am* a truck driver.... I know what you said all too well. I also have very good judgement, and I know without a doubt what he did was intentional.

Grommit: Thanks for the kind words. I know exactly what you mean, but that's exactly why I *don't* carry a gun... I don't want to go to jail for shooting someone.... our system protects the criminals anyway. Although I have contemplated carrying a slingshot. They are gods gift to man, right?

 

i dont think he is jealous, most newer dualies run about 40K

 

It worked for david anyway... lol.. I'm just being silly now...

But thats my story... I just thought I would share how ignorant some people can be. Wreck a mans hard earned Z over jealousy. How stupid is that.

The dualie was a piece of **** and was smoking profusely.

 

You people sure do know a lot for not seeing the situation with your own eyes. I'm just thankful I'm alive, and my Z is too.

 

i think the point is we don't have enough information based on just the account you provided to conclude this guy was really trying to hit you. but either way the guy was an idiot for swerving into your lane and for not signalling.

 

i doubt he could see you and probably just mis judged the position of your car. They have a huge blindspot, but i cant believe he wouldnt use a blinker unless he was avoiding something in front of him. Good thing you're ok, cause thats what matters.

 

Most people around here don't signal for lane changes anymore because as soon as you do signal, the car that was behind you speeds up to take that spot you were about to move into.

I carpool with my wife to work, and to get into the carpool lane on the freeway I need to cross two other lanes of traffic. I always signal, but one time there was a dude in a Nissan Pathfinder who had left a pretty large gap in front of him. I signalled and waited for a sec and he gunned it to close the gap. I was annoyed, but whatever, I backed off. There was a dude in a Mercedes ML350 behind the pathfinder who was a bit behind (because the pathfinder had gunned it to pull along side me) and he pulled up quickly to tailgate the pathfinder (meanwhile, my signal has been going the whole time). Then, the pathfinder slowed and left another gap, and I thought he had noticed my passenger and realized that I was just crossing thru "his" lane on my way to the carpool lane. I therefore started moving over again, and this time he gunned it once more and pulled along side of me even though I was already partly in his lane. I once again slowed, but this time the ML320 dude wasn't paying attention (or finally saw the passenger) and so I went behind the pathfinder and finally made it into the carpool lane. I was able to chirp the tires next to the Pathfinder idiot as I accellerated away, which was nice.

Anyhow, that got me riled a bit, so I can only imagine what your situation was like.

Glad you made it out without any damage, and don't worry about the dualie. He'll get what's coming eventually, you can only act that way for so long before a cop sees it or you cause an accident.

Later,
D'oh!

 

Someone actually tried (and succeeded) to hit my dad's ML430 once, and when they got out of the cars, it was some little asian guy driving a beater who said quote "I have my insurance come after you. You pay for my car. You rich, you drive Mercedes."

I would have had my insurance pay for the whiplash caused by me donkey punching the guy if he pulled that ish on my Z...

 

I'm sorry I don't know all the lingo but what's a "dualie"?

 

I think they mean dual cab trucks Zcool.

 

I thought a dualie referred to those pickup behemoths with two rear wheels on either side (for a total of four rear wheels).

 

so what happened afterwards? Did your dad's insurance company actually pay for him?
Should have slapped him right there when he said that.

 

Glad you are okay.
I dont think that guy meant to murder you on the highway, like others said, he probably was just a redneck and didn't know how to drive.

 

Thats actually a good question - I dont know what ended up happening. This occurred on his way to work on Queens blvd. before I was born, so I only heard the story of it happening and didnt really ask how it settled out.

If i know insurance companies, however, I'm pretty sure it was a no win and caused more of a headache than anything. But yeah, still a pretty rare (and f'ed up) thing to happen to ya...

 

A dualie is one of the big pickups with the two rear wheels on each side of the axle. Not a Quad Cab or Club Cab or whatever they are calling them these days (although many duallies do have four doors).

-D'oh!

 

yes, that is annoying. or a lane opens up and you signal to move into that lane to pass the slow *** cars in your current lane, then the idiot in front of you shifts into your destination lane after you signal and slows down so you can't pass. so many punks here in the east bay. when i drive in central california everyone is so courteous and understand highway etiquette, but up here drivers are complete idiots.

 

some drivers are just @$$holes

back in college I was driving back after winterbreak and it snowing lightly. I was going at speed limit when a 18 wheeler passed me on the left, switched to my lane, and slowed down. I decided to pass on the left when he suddenly move to left again without using blinkers, I then shifted to right lane and he did the same. I thought that was odd so again I tried shuffle to left than right and he did the same and almost lost control of his trailer, after this I backed off and put some distance between the two of us, don't know what was his problem.