Get Off My Ass!

I travel about 40,000 miles a year for my business.  I travel in the wide open spaces, I travel in rush hour traffic in large cities, I travel little two lane roads off the beaten path.  And I don't know what it is about people, but there is a total epidemic of assholes who want to just ride about six feet off your bumper - at all speeds.

In one of the first entries I had on this blog (click here) about two and a half years ago, I talked about the worst tailgater's out there - women.  I'd still have to say the vast majority of people I see tailgating are women.  But, I'm telling you, men are catching up.

The only thing I can figure out is that some of these guys think they're in a NASCAR race and they're drafting with the guy ahead of them.  If I can't see the license plate of the car behind me in my rear view mirror.  That's too damn close.  Lately, I've been noticing that some of these idiots are so close I can't even see their headlights!  And that's at 70 miles an hour! 

Interstate 80 between Iowa City and Davenport is getting to be very dangerous.  The amount of traffic that is out there between the two cities has grown exponentially over the past few years.  And there have been some spectacular - and deadly - wrecks over the past couple of years along that stretch.  It's one of the very few stretches of road that I travel where I feel a little nervous behind the wheel. 

Last week, one of my colleagues, John, was in a horrible crash along Interstate 95 in Maryland.  First of all, he was lucky to have walked away from the crash.  Secondly, he was lucky to have upgraded from the PT Cruiser that Hertz tried to give him.  He actually got an Infiniti SUV with a $20 a day upgrade.  But when he drove it away, it was shaking and shimmering all over the place.  He took it back and said, "Man, there is no way that car is safe to drive."

The Hertz location didn't have any other cars - save for one - a Mercedes C230.  The guy let John take it for a $10 a day upgrade.  John called me up and said, "Man, you are not gonna believe what I'm driving!!  This is sweet!!  And I got a sweet deal from Hertz on it!"

He called me a couple days later and said he'd just been in a big wreck.  He was going along in traffic and the cars in front of him began to slow down - and quick.  He was able to stop, but a guy in a panel truck who'd been riding his ass for a few miles didn't.  He plowed into the back of John's rental car, which drove the trunk into the backseat. 

The collision was so severe that it pushed the Mercedes into the rear end of the car in front of John.  And that car then nailed the car in front of it.  The motor housing was pushed back into the passenger compartment on the Mercedes.   

Then on top of all that, the panel truck got nailed from behind collapsing it like an accordion.   It was the quintessential five car wreck.  And John was right smack-dab in the middle.  He was sore and went to the hospital to get checked up, but there was nothing more than some bruises, stiff joints and a sore neck.  But there's a totaled Mercedes that Hertz probably isn't too happy about right now.

Some states, such as Minnesota and Arizona, are implementing programs to cut down on tailgating.  The Minnesota experiment is targeting an area near the Twin Cities where 80% of the accidents are rear-end collisions.  And Arizona has been using a radar-gun device called a LIDAR that clocks the intervals between cars to cut down on tailgater's.   

So, boys and girls, let this be a lesson.  Give yourself an interval of at least two seconds between you and the car in front of you on the Interstate.   And keep at least a couple car lengths at speeds under 30 miles an hour.   Nothing pisses me off more than a person who hangs on my bumper - at any speed.      

Comments

[Anne T.]

My husband says I'm a chronic tailgater. I never really thought anything about it until I hit the back end of a truck on I-30 in Arlington one day last summer. Now I make sure I have room in front of me.

[Will]

When Cindy and I first began to date years ago, she would habitually ride the bumper of the person in front of her. I used to get on her about it.

Finally, one day she called me in tears while she was on her lunch break. She had run into the back of a car because she was following too close. That was her lesson, too.

Well, that and when she got nailed in rear end by a guy who didn't notice she was stopped in traffic. She had some lingering injuries over that.