OT - Ever had anyone slam on the brakes in front o

Bobg

I had a 63 1/2 Ford Galaxey with a 390 4spd so I droped to 3rd and floored it. Just as I got close to the RV I seen a Ford Rancharo make a lef turn onto a sIde street. I couldn't see the Ford because the RV was tailgating the Ford.

I hit the brakes and slid for the longest time before I nailed the Ford on the left rear fender and bumper. I was at such a hard skid my bumper went under the Ford bumper and took out my grill, hood, radiator and dents on both front fenders.

The lady I hit was the head nurse at the hospital where my wife gave birth to our daughter a week later, and guess who we met first when the wife went into labor....lol

Ahhh the good memories of a stupid kid.

Thanks for the flash back :)

T_Bone

I am also generally tired of careless drivers, I reported a beer sales rep driving a PT cruiser who stormed out of a convenience store parking lot to catch his delivery truck driver, crossed a double yellow, the truck pulled out of a road connecting 2 roads in front of the store, PT cruiser guy cheated by looking down the road and stormed out, when the big truck passed, the sales rep guy could not see me, until after the truck cleared. Dumb move, and I chased him for a bit, then went home, called the company and reported him, it was in my neighborhood, I eventually got to the VP of operations of the distributor and expressed my dissatisfaction with the persons actions on the road, he also was training the owners son to take over the business, kid was in the vehicle with him. I'm glad I got to him, I feel like I made a difference. I could go on and on about this subject, you see a lot when on the road.

The funniest one I ever had happen was when a senior citizen tried to take a left beside me when I was taking a left with a tractor trailer, hauling a roof truss trailer, had the lower bolster arm kit on, kind of a sharp angle iron held on by heavy chain, so it hung low for certain truss configurations, well I hooked his car like a bass, and after I started the turn, as I was shifting, it felt like the emergency brake was on or the air line broke on the trailer, and the brakes came on, I looked did not see anything, grabbed one or 2 more gears and then saw the car hooked onto the trailer, I dragged it a fair distance, the tractor was an R-model Mack 300+ 9 spd, and I had dragged him into a curb, bent over the 2 wheels on the driver side and twisted the car so much that all the glass broke out ! The old timer was a little shook up, he said I'm 87 years old and still kickin, guess I'll be gettin a new car now. He tried to turn as I was turning using the outside lane to make a wide turn to clear the intersection, which was going up hill the direction we were both headed. I got some stupid ticket for it too, I was angry about that, as I've kept a clean driving record since I first got my license. Must have been 20 years ago when this happened.

What is this world coming to?

Roger in Iowa

One day, as I was coming home on 65 I came up on the Edinburgh overpass going over Highway 44. As there was traffic and I was young, I of course was in the left hand lane going about 75. There had not been anyone in front of me in my lane and I had just passed the last car in the right lane.

As soon as I crested the hill I saw a small station wagon STOPPED in the left lane where they had lost a load of clothes because their hatch was open. I immediately locked them up and swerved to the right. When I came to a stop I was facing on-coming traffic and was on the right shoulder with my rear bumper about six inches from the guard rail. The idiot stopped in the left lane was still there stopped along with two huge lines of traffic.

I don't know if anyone else collided but I do know when I pulled out and headed back the direction I was originally going, my Nova started going: thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. All 4 tires had flat spots. That was an unexpected expense. It could have been worse. I probably got out cheap.

That being said, the world is full of self important morons, and unfortunately common sense and courtesy are not requirements for getting a driver's license. We can all relate instances where someone did somthing dumb in front of us. I even got tagged for a fender bender one time because some woman driver tried to crowd behind me while I was backing out of a parking space (she pulled out of another spot AFTER I was partway out, then tried to pull forward behind me). Even though what she did was incredibly stupid, the rules say that the person backing out has to yield...

I hated driving in California the whole time we lived there. Any time you try to leave a little space between yourself and the car ahead of you, some nut case will pull into it trying to get around someone else.

Enough of the rant, but in this case the rule is you're responsible for being able to stop no matter what the idiot ahead of you does. Some people actually commit insurance fraud by deliberately causing accidents which take advantage of this rule.

Keith

George

http://www.newbiedriver.com/articles/Dear_John_Q_Public.htm

It would be one thing if she'd pulled out in front of you and slammed on her brakes. But you say you were following her through town.

Bobg

Have you ever driven a truck?

Donovan from Wisconsin

Donovan from Wisconsin

About 35+ years ago when I was teaching drivers ed in the summer, I had a young lady who wasn't a bad driver, but was much too timid about acceleration, and didn't want to drive over 40 mph. On the last day of class, as we were heading back to school on a wide two lane road, I complimented her on her caution, than told her that I was concerned that she'd take her brother's hopped-up Chevy for a drive and not be able to handle it. I told her I wanted her to push the accelerator to the floor, let the car go into passing gear, and when it got to 60 mph, she could take her foot off the gas.

We continued to cruise along for a bit, then I said, "Go ahead and push the accelerator to the floor!" She said, "Now?" I said, "Yes, now!"

She continued to drive along at 45 mph, and I said, "Push the pedal to the floor now!" Without hesitation, she mashed the BRAKE pedal down and held it there! All four wheels were locked, tires were screeching, the car was sliding down the middle of the road at about a 30 degree angle from straight ahead....and I had both hands locked on her right thigh just above the knee trying to get her foot off the gas while yelling at her to pick up her foot!

We slid to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Then she said "I don't know why I did that!" The two kids in the back seat and I were all speechless. It's a good thing nothing was coming from either direction.

Once about 25 years ago I was trying to make my way through the downtown area of Seattle on the freeway during rush hour. I needed to get over one more lane to my left in the next 1/8th mile or I was going to miss the entrance to the express lanes, which would make my drive a little longer and a lot harder. Seattle traffic is terrible, and Seattle drivers are angry and aggressive, but only so-so in the skill department. Nobody felt like letting me in, so I picked an opening about the size of my '72 Datsun p/u and slid in. Nobody had to hit the brakes, but two old knucklebusters in a beat up Dodge p/u which I was now in front of must have been irritated that they weren't going to get to see me miss the on ramp. As soon as we were on the express lanes they raced to get ahead of me, then hit the brakes repeatedly to try to get me to rear-end them. That would have done a lot of damage to my vehicle, and probably none at all to theirs.

When they took off I chased after them until we were miles north of the city. I couldn't catch up to them and finally gave up. I never did figure out exactly what I thought I was going to do if I managed to catch them, but I was interested to find out and I think they weren't.

All the best, Stan