The last couple days have been pretty hard for me. Not difficult, just hard. I’ve been having a hard time getting along with the human race, specifically on the roadways. My outlook changed last Saturday when I was driving home on the interstate, cruising along with the other cars and I glance in my rear view mirror and see someone right on my ass. I mean, right there.
“Surely they realize how close they are and how unsafe that is. They’ll slow down now.” is the thought I had in my mind when the impact occurred. Everything in the car went flying. drinks spilled, shifter thrown into neutral, GF screaming. Even though we were surrounded by cars, it’s surprising how quickly openings appear when cars collide. I was able to quickly get over to the right hand median. But my assailant didn’t. Nor did he have any intention of doing anything of the sort.
Still in shock, I hadn’t realized yet that the car was in neutral, so trying to take chase of the other car was delayed by a few precious seconds while I wondered why the car wouldn’t move. Did I take so much damage that my tires were pinned? Nope. I got back in drive and took off in pursuit.
Unfortunately, traffic worked hard against me, blocking me in lane after lane. And I was disadvantaged because I’m clearly not as reckless as the one who hit me. My hopes of catching the assaulter fell quickly. One of the cars I caught up to and tried to get around started gesturing at me. They kept pointing to the right hand side of the road even though we were in the left lane. Eventually, we both pulled off to the left side.
I immediately went and looked at my damaged bumper. Honestly, it wasn’t bad. The other people got out of their car and explained that the car I wanted just got off on the exit we just passed together. Well, that’s lost. But, they said they got the plate number, so hooray! We traded info in case I needed a witness (tip: highway patrol and insurance really want a witness).
So, to speed the story up a bit, the police were unable to find a matching car with that plate number. I have to pay my insurance deductible because no one can find the hit-and-run bastard. But, I’m grateful things didn’t turn out much worse. Getting hit at 75mph, I could have swerved, flipped, gotten t-boned, hit a pole, and maybe even taken out other cars (and who would then be responsible for that?!). Things aren’t that bad.
But they are. I had been slowly getting more and more frustrated by the behavior of other drivers on the highway. Insanely unsafe driving with no regard for others. I’ve recently had to keep my composure when delayed by accidents. It takes a lot for me to not get to the accident site and yell out the window, “You motherfuckers! Do you see what you’ve done?!”
When I see a car coming up behind me now, my first thought is, “Are you going to hit me, too? Why don’t you?” Every time I see someone weave through traffic, I think, “Are you going to run away? Do you even know what risk you’re taking? Do you even fucking care?” I know the answer. They don’t. I used to not let that worry me, because these self-centered assholes never affected me. But now they have, and I want to wage war.
Right now, I’m debating on buying a dash cam. I feel I need to document this insanity. I’m also giving thought to creating a website exposing these ridiculous drivers. I will probably need to get some council to determine if such a thing is legal, and I really hope it is. To have a searchable database of license plates with user-submitted video proof of the owner’s dangerous driving habits, that may make a difference.
And if it doesn’t, or if such a thing can’t be done, well, I guess I just have to suck it up and pay the deductible. The assholes win again.
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