I Feared For My Life

[blas]

...and this is why I don't miss driving late at night on the freeway at all!

This is also a case where one really assholish trucker ruins it for all of them.

So I did a little extra overtime last night, and since I hadn't slept very well during the day yesterday, I was getting really tired and decided to leave at 1 am (oh well, 4 hours is better than none).

I have to hop on two different freeways to get home.

I got onto the first freeway and was merging in at the required speed limit, 65 mph.....I mean, it's 1 am and really no reason to rocket.

I was fully aware as I was merging that there was a semi truck way back there, and that I had plenty of room to merge in.

Well, once I was merged all the way in, the truck got closer and closer, so he'd been hauling some serious ass.

At first I figured he'd do what everyone else does when they roar up on my rear end, eventually just go around me.

Nope. I mean, what this trucker did had me SHAKING with fear.......

He kept getting closer and closer as we went along. I mean, it got to the point where he was probably just feet behind my rear bumper.....and for a second, I remembered the infamous bus crash that happened in this part of the woods a few years back when an overtired trucker caused a serious accident (ok, so the trial proved him not guilty, but I will always think he was).

I got so scared that I didn't even gently switch lanes. I cranked that wheel and got into the left lane....and wouldn't you know it, that truck just blew past me and got way ahead of me, and I was able to go back into the right lane. I mean, was he going to just get closer until he bashed my car into an accordian?!?!

Was he falling asleep at the wheel? Maybe. Was he being an asshole and trying to hog and boss the road? Maybe. There's really no way of knowing.

All I know was I had to check my panties when I got home to make sure I hadn't sharted myself!

[LillFilly]

I feel you; never can understand why ANY driver does that. There's no call for intimidating tailgating like that.

I was on a back-country road, 1-lane each way, highway speeds, with friends. This semi truck and us were the only vehicles. We're doing 65. The truck gets closer; we figure he's going to pass. Nope. 75. Closer. 85. Closer. 95. We're flying and the truck is inhaling our tailpipe. Finally WE get into the opposite lane as the truck passes, picking-up speed to over 100. It was FREAKING scary!

[blas]

I just cannot wrap my head around a freaking semi truck tailgating someone! Obviously no one would survive being rammed from behind by a semi truck at speeds like that!

As I look back on this, I wonder if I would have continued to stay in front of him, if he was ever going to say F it and go around me, or was he really going to actually ram my car?!

Maybe truckers around here are doing this so often because they know they won't be found guilty at trial.....that trucker from the bus crash killed 5 people and was found not guilty because the bus had bad brakes and couldn't stop in time from smashing into his overturned semi truck that he overturned because he fell asleep at the wheel, because he had been awake for several days and lied on his logs and even had been drinking the day before!

If only I'd taken the incentive and called the number on the back of the truck.....I know for a fact my dad's boss would not tolerate behavior like that. That trucker would have been suspended, if not fired.

[chainedbarista]

i'm so glad you're ok; there is no excuse for that kind of behavior, tired, impatient, whatever.