so i was taking my usual drive to work today. enjoying the crossfire and some good music while rolling along the back roads when i came upon a mulch company that i always have to watch for things out of the norm,. bulldozers, chunks of dirt, random guys walking across the road... well today it was like they all got together and converged at 1 tome to make things difficult. there was a bulldozer going across the street and 2 trucks sitting along the right side. a saw the dozer go and the next truck in line sat there until the car ahead of me went......then for whatever reason decided to pull right out infront of me making me have to punch the gas and swerve into the other side of the road. all i have to say is thank god no one was coming the other way and i think if i was in a slower car my back end would have been completely smashed and who knows if i would be in the hospital right now????

anyone else have a close call in their crossfire?

 

Last summer I was headed home from work on the 241 Toll Road (SoCal members know what I'm talking about) and was near the end of it when I came upon a couple of vehicles on an otherwise empty road. This is your typical freeway setup, two lanes in each direction with a very wide median between them and a fairly wide shoulder on the right side. I'm in the right lane doing about 80mph and I signal to move to the left lane to overtake the pickup and van that I'm gaining on. Well, the pickup moves over too, apparently because he's about to overtake the van too. Fine, no big deal. He didn't cut me off or anything as he was still a good bit ahead of me so I figured I'd just wait for him to get around the van and move back over. By now, however, we're going uphill and gradually turning left in a big sweeper, and he's losing some speed. We get past the van - eventually) but the pickup doesn't move back into the slow lane (we're now doing between 60~65mph) so I finally give up, signal and move to pass him on the right - not something I'm in the habit of doing. As my front bumper gets even with his rear he starts moving into my lane, basically forcing me onto the shoulder. I get on both the brakes and the horn, move back in behind the pickup then over to the left lane up pull up along side him. I match his speed and look up at him. He's on the phone and looking down at some paperwork he's holding against the steering wheel. Apparently he's in his own little world, oblivious to the fact that this large public highway is being used by more than one car at a time. He had no clue I was ever behind him, approaching him, held up by him, trying to get around him, almost hit by him, or along side him and presenting the single digit salute. I'm sure that the act of driving a motor vehicle was an annoyance to him because obviously his phone call/paperwork was the critical event in his life at the moment.

 

Good story, Mike. And all too often many of us see the same thing. I can't bring myself to trust anyone's ability to do more than one thing at a time with any precision. I know I can't.

Aubun, Alabama is a little town (~20K) with a 28K student population and roads that are meant for a town of 10K. 80% of all drivers are using cellphones and no one uses turn signals. I'm sure you get the point!

On the way to work today, I was toodling along at 60 in a 55 and almost t-boned a FedEx van when he pulled out in front of me. Ah-the smell of smoking brakes in the morning....

I know the driver and will see him on his rounds this afternoon. I'll just ask him very nicely just what the he!! he was thinking.

 

Going to school on I-95 South. my exit is coming up so I am in the right lane. Out of no where a car cuts over from the middle lane to the right and cuts someone off. They slam the brakes causing the person in front to same on too. I hit the breaks and knew I couldn't stop. I slammed them and swerved into the shoulder. Stopping side by side with the car in front of me. Then i hear another car slamming brakes on and he stops right where my car would have been almost hitting the car in front of me. If i didnt' swerve into the shoulder i would have been sandwiched.

 

Pssh, I'll have you know in the 4 (and a half) years I was in Auburn I always used my turn signal...mainly because 95% of the other people (students and old people) on the road are complete idiots...

I am glad I had my '94 blazer and not my SRT6 back then...whew.

However, I am planning a trip down there in the SRT to show a couple friends and take them to the drag strip in Montgomery haha.

 

Then YOU, my friend, were 1 of 27,000!

I've driven, for weeks if not months, in the most dissed and crowded cities in the world. Athens, Rome, Paris, Tokyo etc, and have found the drivers in this little dorf to be less predictable and more frustrating than in any place else on earth. I drive the buggy to work only occasionally, and always with my head on a swivel...

When you come, let me know? I'd like to meet you.

 

Hmmmm, let's count the times.........

Almost whacked a 3-legged deer on the way home yesterday afternoon. Darn thing came limping out of the woods at a pretty good clip while I was driving a county highway with hardly any shoulders (like most of Wisconsin's roads). Had to do a brake slam to avoid the critter.

3 weeks ago, on my way to work, while driving up a long sweeping curve heading into the village of Iola, some clod in a silver Ford pickup blew past a stop sign on a road that intersects the highway I was on, full speed ahead, never slowed down, right in front of me. Thought to myself that if I had been driving a few mph faster I'd have been toast, a mere few seconds faster & the missus would've been reading the will. Never had a chance to hit the brakes. The only thing I remember is a whole bunch of adrenaline suddenly pumping around my body.

A couple of months ago I had a liquid manure wagon (very common around these parts) pull out right in front of me down the same highway & proceed to cruise down the road at about 5 mph while dripping liquid cow-sheet all over the road & my car. Had to take it to a car wash just to get rid of the odor that permeated the car for the rest of the day.

And so it goes...........

 

Kurt,

are you going to the Iola car/swap meet? If you do, find a guy named John selling a '33 Plymouth Businessman's Coupe, all original. And share a story and a drink or two at my expense?

 

good thing you knew where the bad drivers are on your way to work. I on the other hand have to look everywhere,,every minute,, a while back as I started under a overpass ,a truck slightly to my left and in in front of me ,,(carring sheets of glass) he was making a left i was going stright,, when i saw a reflection in the glass of a car sliding sideways on the wet exit ramp ,, i hit my brakes( got stoped) ,,the car came from behing the wall and sliding all the way across 4 lane street,, hit no one but there was a guy behind me the blew his horn at me because i stoped in the middle of the street with noone in front of me ,,until he see the car sliding sideways right in front of us. ,, when it was all over at the next red light, he rolled his window and said thanks,,jim

 

I'm always in a defensive mode while driving. It seems taller vehicles just don't see the car for whatever reason and can change lanes right into your lane. Last Saturday I was almost hit by a tanker truck. The day before I was driving into my office and almost got hit by a Miata that wasn't looking too well before he decided to pull out of a parking lot.

 

We haven't for the past decade but I'm feeling the urge to get there this year. The whole town becomes such a zoo but it is fun to drive through it every morning during that week & see every imaginable type of car driving/parked around.
Problem is they do it when I'm trying to get home. Try getting behind a Model T for a dozen miles zipping down the road at 25mph with a 1/2 mile of cars stuck behind it.
Always good for plenty laughs..........

Does John have this '33 tricked out or is it "stock"?

 

Mike, Max....when I see a driver so involved with their work and their phone, rather than paying attn to the road, my duel air horns usually bring them back to reality....of course I was just trying to help...Max, you will like young Matt....true XF lover...and his quick time thru the 1/4 mile, well, you ask him about that....LOL

 

I almost got clipped by a full size F150 turning right from the left lane at the last second. He had me pinned in a right only turn lane with no where to go. All I remember seeing was truck tires coming for my drivers window. I had just installed a pair of 139dB Stebel Nautilus Compact horns five minutes earlier and and was taking it out for a test drive. Horns worked as advertised and I never hesitate to use them often!


My luckiest near miss was in LA, about 8 years ago. I had a brand-new Dodge Intrepid ES, only 2 weeks old. Flying down the 405 in Orange county, left lane about 70 mph. Up ahead I see a mid size delivery truck starting to tip over. He was is in the opposite, oncoming inside lane and I was close enough to see the "O-crap" expression on the guys face just before he went over. The center concrete barrier shredded the top of the truck and I had FULL 55-gal drums bouncing over my hood and windshield at 70 mph. It felt like "Bad Boys 2" — it made a mess out of the morning commute but no one was hurt, and none of the drums hit me.

 

Completely stock. Picked it up for song in Daytona Beach a month ago and figured he could make a buck. Look him up-he's a riot to be with.

P.S. He has a nickname-"Two Speed Johnny". On and Off. I've been scared more riding with him that any other time in my life! 'specially in his cigarette boat. 80 mph on H2O is just wrong!

 

I am quite surprised you did not share the story where you had the SRT in 4 wheel drive on the way to the dragon LMFAO