Monday, June 04, 2007

Idiocy on Two Wheels

Today I had a very scary experience on the freeway.

I was driving home in the next-to-rightmost lane and I needed to get over to exit. So, I passed a white van that was in the lane I needed to get into and, when I had put 3-4 car lengths between me and him, I put on my blinker, checked my blind spot, and started to get over. Suddenly, as I was halfway into the new lane, in my mirrors, I noticed a green blur coming up behind me and passing me on my right...in the lane I was getting into. Somehow I realized said green blur was a dude on a crotch rocket. I quickly swerved back into my original lane and watched as he passed me on the right, only to dart in front of me and over two lanes to the left, between another car and a semi truck. He was going AT LEAST 85 mph because he passed me like I was standing still and I was going 65 mph.

I seriously almost killed this guy....or he almost killed himself with my car. Whatever. I was all adrenaliney and I just drove along for 20 seconds or so before I could collect myself and change lanes. As I put on my signal the second time, the white van flashed his lights at me to let me know I could get over. I interpreted that as both of us being totally freaked out by the experience and, therefore, a little anal and overvigilant about lane changing safety!

1 comment:

  1. My wife (who was driving) and I had a very similar experience a few months ago, except the guy was going so bloody fast and changing lanes so quickly that he almost got hit by the front corner of the car. I'm sure he was moving well over 100 mph, and perhaps faster, given that he went from outside the sphere of obvious visibility to off the front bumper of the car in much less time than it took my wife to change lanes. He was followed by three more bikes, driven in a manner similarly likely to invite the Wrath of Darwin, and a cop car that had less than no hope of stopping them.

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