brake check past & present

[PepperElf]

first the present...
was visiting my family over the hols and had gone out shopping with mom.

on the way back, i was coming close to the right hand turn i'd have to make to get on the street mom & dad's apartment complex was on.

but i had a car behind me so close i couldn't see his license plate or headlights, and the roads weren't in great condition because of the snow.

so i gave him a gentle brake check - nothing dangerous, just enough to make my tail-lights flash at him as a warning. thankfully he was impatient enough to pull over to the other lane. overall though it was, in my opinion, a bit of kindness to him, cos ... when i got to my turn (which was coming up within a 100 feet or so) i'd be slowing down a LOT more. and i'm not sure he'd have been able to stop in time for that one. but he moved, so when i REALLY slowed down he wasn't affected.


but now the past.
it reminded mom of what happened to her back in the 80s.

she was going down the road and some idiot was tail gating. she did the same thing.. enough of the brakes to flick the tail lights at him.

but in that case it wasn't working. he kept tail gating

and finally he decided to hit her to intimidate her out of his way.


only... apparently the idiot didn't realize... Mom was driving the old Dodge street van. this thing didn't have sissy rubber bumpers - it had full metal ones.

i'm not sure how much damage he did... all i do know is that ALL of it was on his own car, so pretty much the idiot got what he deserved... he damaged his own car.

[Indigo]

Sounds kinda like the guy who rear-ended my mom while she was at a stoplight waiting for a left turn. Light was red, this guy comes up and slams into my mom's vehicle, going at least 35mph (cop said it looked like he might have been going faster).

However.... my mom drives a full-sized pickup truck with a heavy-duty tow package. He was driving a small town&country suv. He ended up with a hole through his front bumper/hood that looked like someone had shot a rocket into his engine. Not even a scratch on my mom's truck.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Woe unto the poor idiot that hits me becuase he was tailgating. I dont care if he is going five miles an hour. I will be laying on the pavement crying about how I can't feel my legs and the tailgater will be my brand new bitch.

[Stormraven]

If we ever come up with electric motors that have the oomph to pull one, I want a Nash Rambler. This is second hand, but another group had similar stories, and this one was told of that car.

Family was in Rambler, daughter asleep in the back. SUV driver zips across the road and sideswipes the Ramber, trying to get in front.

The Rambler's unhurt, the daughter is still asleep in the back, and the SUV looks like the Titanic after the iceberg.

[bacchinalus]

i'm sorry, but why bother with a brake check? here on long island (new york) the other driver won't even be paying attention enough to see the lights flash, or better yet even understand what that means.

i usually just lay off the gas if someone is tailgating, slowing down just enough without touching the brakes, and they get pissed enough to go around me. often enough, they get that evil glint in their eyes when they pass me, but by that time i make my turn and disappoint the hell out of them

[infinitemonkies]

Great bumper sticker I once saw:

(placed on a well-dinged & dented bumper)
I BRAKE FOR TAILGATERS

[Salted Grump]

Another (mostly relevant) Bumper Sticker I've seen

'If you can read this, I can Slam on my Brakes and Sue You.'

[LillFilly]

I will be laying on the pavement crying about how I can't feel my legs and the tailgater will be my brand new bitch.

Oooo, so evil! But there are scams out there where they MAKE you hit them, and have a car full of people and get phony medical papers and such. Oh well, no harm in making the guy sweat a little, then having a miraculous recovery!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Sign on the back of a CAdian van I saw this weekend:

Using your turn signal is not "giving information to the enemy."
Do not bet your life on my reflexes.

[Red_Dazes]

...I have an old Buick. While not a pretty car, per-say, it is a tank. I truly feel for the car who ends up on my bumper....
The moto I live by.... is that while tail-gating is never a good idea... you should NEVER tailgate something bigger and tougher than you.


...it ends in pain and suffering

[Andara Bledin]

That reminds me of one of my previous vehicles; an AMC Hornet. The thing was solid (except the suspension, which we would have had to custom machine to get replaced, which is a shame).

My ex ran into a pickup while in a parking lot, just pulling out of a row. He hit the truck at about 5mph, running the front left corner of the Hornet's bumper into the front left quarter panel on the truck, right behind the wheel.

The aftermath left the pickup undriveable due to having a seriously bent up quarterpanel interfering with wheel movement.

The Hornet's headlight was knocked out of place, as it was only held in by a bit of metal strapping because we couldn't get the retaining ring replaced without some searching. The ex settled it back into place and was ready to go.

^-.-^

[Polenicus]

I usually just lay off the gas if someone is tailgating, slowing down just enough without touching the brakes, and they get pissed enough to go around me. often enough, they get that evil glint in their eyes when they pass me, but by that time i make my turn and disappoint the hell out of them

I've had to do this to extremes sometimes. I drive a very shiny, very yellow Volkswagen Golf that I desperately do NOT want to end up under the front bumper of some of the jacked-up monster trucks they drive around here.

On the highway in bad weather I've had people basically in my trunk, with their brights on. When this happens, I just ease off the gas, until they get the hint and change lanes or back off. A couple of times I've nearly had to come to a complete stop before they got the hint.

[HYHYBT]

Be careful, there are a lot of nuts out...

A story I'd forgotten, and I don't remember when it happened but in that car it must have been early 90's, someone was severely tailgating me one night. I tapped the brakes a couple of times without slowing down, just as 'please give me some room' gesture, which they ignored. So I let off on the gas. They stayed right on my bumper a while longer, then passed... only to SLAM on their brakes right in front of me. Then they sped up and, thinking everything was fine (more or less), so did I, leaving the normal amount of room. They SLAMMED the brakes on again, and again sped up. I decided to stay way back this time. Which is good, because they quite literally stopped in the middle of the road (diagonally across the double yellow line) and got out of the car. I slowed down enough to avoid them and, not being a complete idiot, passed them on the shoulder and continued on my way.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, yeah, definitely be careful.

I had one road rager trying to crawl up my tailpipe on the freeway, once. He then sped around me on an offramp so he could play bullshit games in front of me. So I waited until the last minute to take the offramp and got off the freeway.

This douchemonkey was so intent on getting back at me (I think I flipped him off for driving like a complete asshole) that he drove across a grass divider so he could follow me off the freeway and race after me. I knew the area, so I parked myself in front of the County Sheriff's office in front of the local college that was just a block away. He came driving up the street, noticed where I was parked, and floored it out of there. I had the engine still running and my hand on the horn (since there weren't any cops visible, just a couple of cars) in case he was stupid enough to try something there.

^-.-^

[ADoyle90815]

i usually just lay off the gas if someone is tailgating, slowing down just enough without touching the brakes, and they get pissed enough to go around me. often enough, they get that evil glint in their eyes when they pass me, but by that time i make my turn and disappoint the hell out of them

I do that as well, especially when the brake check thing isn't working. I even did that today after it had been raining, and the tailgater even did a similar thing with a garbage truck.