Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A Poorly Managed Merge

A few years ago I was on my way to work. (I was the Easter Bunny!) I was driving along, and a truck pulled out right next to me. I needed to get into the lane which normally would not have been a problem because I was doing around 40 mph and the truck had just pulled out and I should have been able to just whiz into the lane with no problem.

That is not what happened.

The truck floored it! He speeded up so fast that I was unable to get into the lane. (this all happened in a space of about 100 yards) I had to wait for him to go on past me and I had to slam on my brakes so that I could dive behind him or I would miss the exit I needed to use.

All of this was completely unnecessary.

I was a very aggressive driver. Apparently so was he. I figured if he wanted to force me to dive in behind him (right on his bumper) then I should just stay there. (right on his bumper). Actually the way he speeded up he should have just gone flying away from me and there should have been no problem.

That is not what happened.

He got mad because I dove in behind him right on his ass. Instead of just going on (I was actually slowing) he started to slam on his brakes. Since he wanted to antagonize me so much I started to laugh because I could tailgate with the best of them. I was laughing. I was staying on his ass. He was slamming on the brakes!

All of a sudden he pulls to the side of the exit ramp. He stopped. I went around him because I really didn't have time to play his silly games and as I passed him I looked over to see that he had a gun pointed at me!

I floored it! I took off like a bat out of hell with him hot on my ass. This was in the days before cell phones so the only shot I had was to outrun the bastard! We flew down the interstate and when we got to the next exit I got off and turned toward the State Police Barracks.

He went on.

Nobody was at the State Police Barracks to report anything to. No policeman. No secretary. Nobody.

The man was long gone by this time.

I went on to work.

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