Posted this in zcar.com...

[RAZ1]

I'm confused?

This guy is tailgating a slow driver in the left lane and you pass both in the right. I see no fault here. Happens all the time in New Mexico.

This guy then catches up with you and starts to tailgate you in the right lane? If so, that guy is a jerk. Tapping the brakes has always been my way of telling someone nicely to back off. I see no fault here.

Slowing down to 35 and letting him pass you so you can catch back up to him is where you might now be taking it a little too far.

All of this is of coarse, if you were in the right lane throughout this entire episode. If you were in the left lane then it is your fault.

Beware though. I have a friend, he's about 6'2" - 260lbs and carries a gun (permit and all). One day a guy cuts him off and then this same guy gets pissed at my friend for no reason. This guy gets next to my firends truck at a light and starts telling him off. My friend (a very calm guy and someone you want to have on your side if you are ever in a bar fight) tells him to follow him (he was on the way to the toy store to get his kid a birthday gift). This guy follows him and my firend calmly pulls into a parking slot at the store and this guy drives up and blocks his truck, jumping out of his car yelling at my friend. My friend gets out of his truck looks at the guy, pulls his gun, points it at him and says "bang, your dead". At which point my friend lectured him about acting crazy in New Mexico and that at any given time you never know when someone will pull a gun on you. After my friend finished explaining the finer points of driving manors, he layed the gun down on the hood of his truck and asked the guy if he wanted to settle this the old fashioned way, and of coarse the guy got out of there real quick.

I have a feeling that guy sh!t his pants.

[hls30.com]

Carl,

You left off D: You are an intelligent individual. You see the Snake ahead, but your are not really sure what it is. So you and your Girlfriend approach for a closer look. As you get closer you hear the Snake shaking it's Rattle. NOW you realize your dealing with a Rattle Snake. Out of respect for the courteous warning of its own fear from the snake, you route your path out of danger range, but consider the good fortune of this encounter with another of Gods creatures, and you all go about your way no worse from the encounter, and thankful for watching Animal Planet between the Florida showers that prevent outside work on the Z.

[DatsunZsRule]

I won't voice my opinion about zcar.com because I have nothing nice to say about that site which is why I left there a long time ago but I digress.

I agree with Alex 240Z & Carl. Crazy immature, stupid S.O.B's like that are not worth taking a chance with your life or wrecking your Z. People like that behind the wheel of a motor vehicle is about as bad as a mass murderer running loose with a loaded gun IMO. STAY THE HELL AWAY from them and don't even let them get to you which you did allow to happen. When I come in contact with someone similar on the roadways, I just ignor there presents and let them go. You learn after yrs. of driving not to even let idiots like that bother you. Just consider the source

[EScanlon]

While everyone is giving you the soft shoe, I think you are the one to deserve a solid kick in the arse!

By your own admission, you allowed your baser animal instinct to take over and respond in a stupid, idiotic and dangerous manner.

Although you aren't 100% to blame, let's say that you're like Ivory Guilty...99 and 44/100% to blame.

Posted this in zcar.com .... And of course got reemed because somehow this is my fault, but what do you think? Now something I didn't mention immediately over there was yes I passed this guy half a mile before he started riding me. He was tailgating someone else in the left lane at that time and I easily went around in the right lane. Somehow passing this guy while he's tailgating others is his trigger because that's where it all started.

YOU think that's his trigger in order to excuse your idiocy.

Last night heading home from evening services at church a black Dodge Dakota comes flying up behind me on the highway. This guy had to be about 2 feet from my bumper. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate tailgaters. Trying to warn the guy I tap the brakes.

Warn him of what?

That you would commit suicide in front of his pickup by slamming on your brakes? That you would express your hatred by allowing him to cream your car? That you have an idiot's wish to experience being a speed bump?

You had the option right here to simply get in the right lane and let him go by. But you blew a perfectly good opportunity to not respond like an idiot.

He stays on top of me so (I) hit them a little harder.

AGAIN??? Idiocy compounded with Moronic tendencies.

The guy slams on his brakes then sto(m)ps on the gas gets even closer. There's no one around so he could have passed me.

What? Ignore your obvious affront to his manhood? YOU didn't ignore it.

Of course now I'm pissed.

Of course, now you're justified in your stupidity.

So now you escalate.....

This guy is close enough I can't see his headlights in my review. I start down shifting, he slams on the brakes and STAYS behind me.

Round Three in Darwin's culling of the species.....Make him go OVER you.

Finally after slowing down to almost 35 he pulls into the other lane to pass me. I hit it in 3rd and pulled well ahead and caught up with the rest of the traffic in front.

Couldn't let it go could you Brainiac?

Hoping I finally got rid of this guy I pull in the right lane and just cruise with everyone else.

Oh SUUUURE, just act as if nothing happened. But by your own admission, you were in the LEFT lane all along.

Out of nowhere he comes flying up behind me again, pulls onto the shoulder in the grass pulls up beside me and pulls into the lane forcing his way between me and the car in front of me then slams on his brakes in the middle of the highway. This guys insane.

And you only NOW realized it? Or is this about the time that your sphincter muscle started to contract in convulsions of fear?

I pulled back and stayed about 8 car lengths off as the guy pulls out in front of everyone after almost running two other cars off the road. He's still playing games at this point. He's lane dancing with no cars around him, splitting lanes then slams on the brakes and heads off on a side road.

Of course during all this I have the wife call the cops and report it.

Excellent, NOW you come to your senses. After you realized you had put your lives on the line. Heck of a way to gamble with you AND your wife's life. What does SHE have to say about it?

They said they would dispatch a State Trooper. Never saw him. So out of curiosity I pull off at the next exit. I figured I knew where the guy was going so I back tracked to the two trailer parks off the exit he took.

Curious George the little monkey always had the ranger helping him out of trouble. So now you're Barney Fife and want to go play Cop.....

Sure enough I found his crappy little trailer with the truck parked and him and his buddies on the front porch. We call the cops back and they say there's nothing they can do because it's my word against his. This guy could have seriously killed someone and they don't care. We had plates numbers and an address and it didn't matter. Just for grins I slowly pulled by the guys place making sure he could see me. As soon as he spotted the ZX he said something to the guy beside him who ran back in the house while he backed up on the porch and watched us leave the trailer park. Some people need to be shot.

Grins? or grimaces? And now that he's seen you, you hope he does .... WHAT?

The person needing shot might have been you or your wife.....

You had the first opportunity to ignore the insult, and you blew it. Then you exacerbated the situation and now it's his fault. Then when he won't let it go....YOU'RE the one to be offended.

You got lucky. As others have pointed out, you could have been dead or grieving over your wife.

While you may feel that this is too unkind and rude....hopefully you see it as the life-lesson it was and avoid it in the future.

It has happened to many of us, myself included. It burns a hole in your stomach with all the things you want to do to the guy....but you GET OVER IT. It's way too easy to give in to the temptation and then regret it for the rest of your life.

There ARE times to make a stand....and there are times when making a stand makes it your last stand. Don't make a stand for something so stupid.

2¢

E

[Darrel]

hmm majority forums opinions zcar, hybridz, classiczcars all took you to task about how you handled the situation and was beat down for it. Zdriver has been spotty today or else there would have been 4. Trying all the forums to try and get someone to see your side got you one sympathy vote.

Take the majority opinion and go with that the next time you have the urge to endanger your life and that of your GF.

[EScanlon]

Went to Zcar to see if I could see their opinion and found this:

Date: Feb 21, 8:18am

NC actually has a clause that if you slam on the breaks, whether it's to avoid an animal or what not, and you get rear ended it's your fault. If you're rear ended at a stop sign or while making a turn then it's the other persons fault. For a while they had people that thought it was a good idea to get on the highway cut in front of someone and slam on the breaks so they could sue them for damages and medical. There's always those few that make it more difficult for the rest of us.

And couldn't find your original post there....they must have pulled it.

E

[Darrel]

Yeah, they locked then deleted the thread on zcar. The one from hybridz is still up, but close to getting locked and pulled.

[Jackhammer]

Coming from church services....and you didn't ask yourself WWJD? Hmmm?

[1 Bravo 6]

Jeremy,

You'd probably find that most of us have been in a similar situation at one time or another.

Quite a few of the respondents to your thread have pointed out where you went wrong and actually contributed to the danger of the situation you found yourself in, through no fault of your own.

It seems obvious to me that you allowed your emotions to overule your common sense in the heat of the moment.

While I agree with the comments of those who have pointed out where you went wrong, I have to say that it's easy to show a great deal of common sense when you look at a situation on retrospect, with the time to make a sensible judgement of the situation.

You'd be hard pressed to find a more defensive driver than me. But then, I'm a mouldy oldie with over 45 years of driving experience behind me. However, in my younger, wilder days, (so wild in fact, that I'd open a packet of chips with my teeth) (in those days, they WERE my teeth) . If anyone tailgated me in daylight, I'd turn the car's lights on and off. Seeing the tail lights suddenly glow red gave the IMPRESSION that I'd touched the brakes whan in fact I was maintaining my speed, lessening the chance of being rear ended by the tailgater but, more often than not, the tailgater's instinctive reaction was to hit HIS brakes, puting HIM in the position of being rear ended, thereby placing the inocent driver behind him in danger of collision. When I eventually realised the possible consequences of turning the lights on and off I changed tactics. I'd pull over and let him pass.

Anyway, I think you've learned a valuable lesson.

Rick.

:devious: :devious:

[astrohog]

I DO NOT CONDONE ANYBODY SLAMMING ON THEIR BRAKES TO TEACH A TAILGATER A LESSON! PERIOD! Besides being dangerous for all involved, it will never teach that kind of driver a lesson. It will just anger them more.

Occasionally, I like to drive FAST. When I do, I try to do it as safely as possible for me and the other drivers on the road. Yes, we have speed limits for a reason, but I am not a Police Officer and it is not my place to enforce the speed limit, so when I am approached from behind by a driver that wants to drive fast, I simply pull over to the farthest right lane and let them by. If EVERYBODY would do this, our highways would be much safer for all!

In WA State, it is AGAINST THE LAW to drive in the left lane unless you are passing. What drives me crazy are the people that have no awareness of the other traffic surrounding them and drive in the "fast lane" at or below the speed limit. If you want to drive the speed limit, then stay RIGHT!

Again, if everybody followed those two simple rules everybody would be able to drive whatever speed they feel comfortable with and it would really cut down on the "ragers".

Thanks for allowing me to add my $.02 on this topic, I FEEL MUCH BETTER! :D

Regards,

Astrohog

[Victor Laury]

Hey, I know I'm an idiot - My Response? = Let's see if this rattlesnake still wants to tailgate me at 135MPH

[DougN]

Like most people, I can get annoyed at idiot drivers. However, when I do, before things get out of hand or I get carried away, I remind myself that while they are typically in a non-descriptive later model SUV/Truck/car, I am driving a very noticeable car (either my Z or my MGB). It would be very easy for them to remember the car and spot it parked somewhere and take their anger out on it when I am not there to defend it. Or worse, spot me driving it at a later date/time and have them proceed to start the antics up again. Better to just let sleeping dogs lay as they say...