Today, a total idiot put my life, and the life of my unborn baby, in danger. At the same time, he put many other lives at risk, including his own, and could have caused thousands of dollars in damage.
I was driving home from work on the highway and found myself behind an 18-wheeler and a Jeep. I made a diagram to explain how our vehicles were located on the road:
The truck is the green one, the Jeep is the red one, and my car is the blue one. It's not to scale (I was even further away from the truck and the Jeep because I like to give myself as much room to react to situations as possible, and this answer is basically why, but I squished my car closer for the sake of the diagram), and there's actually one more lane to the left of the truck, but I've left it out because it's irrelevant, and I think it would make the diagram too complicated.
Anyway, we were all driving along at high speed when suddenly a tire on the 18-wheeler blew. Bits of rubber rained down on the road and a white mist appeared from where the tire had been moments before. Instantly, the truck driver put on his directional, signaling that he wanted to move over to the breakdown lane.
I backed my car off in response, but the Jeep didn't do anything. He continued to match the speed of the truck and was essentially blocking the truck driver from moving over.
This idiot was lucky the truck driver could see his Jeep. The truck started slowing down to go behind the Jeep, and this dumb motherfucker slowed down with the truck, still blocking the truck.
The trucker blared his horn, and the Jeep simply honked back in response and didn't change his speed.
Now, there's absolutely no way the Jeep driver couldn't have realized something was wrong. The tire that exploded was just about at the Jeep’s back bumper; I imagine pieces of tire would have struck the Jeep and the driver would have seen the white smoke in his mirrors.
You know. Assuming he had looked.
I couldn't see the driver himself or what he was actually doing, but I have no doubt he was distracted by something, probably a cell phone. It's illegal for drivers to use their cell phone while driving in my state unless they're using it handsfree, like on speaker or Bluetooth. That law went into effect yesterday, but the DoT has been reminding drivers with signs for over a month previously.
But I digress.
I was worried the truck driver would lose control of his truck. Yes, the truck had seventeen other wheels, but what if the explosion of the one tire caused damage to other tires? What if it damaged the wheel bearing or the axel? What if the truck had a full load and the weight pressing down on the tires unequally could cause serious problems? I was in an excellent position to get flattened by the truck if it lost control.
I ran through options. I could speed up and tailgate the Jeep and honk my horn and hopefully force the Jeep out of the way, but that would put me in immediate danger. I drive a sedan; would the truck driver see my car once the Jeep passed? Would he know to look for my car, or would he move over immediately after seeing the Jeep pass?
That would be a bad move. I had to do something else.
I backed off even more, putting more than a full truck's length between me and the Jeep, and slowed way down, putting on my hazard lights. At the same time, I beeped my horn a few times to get the trucker's attention and rapidly flashed my hi-beams. I was trying to tell him that I'd cleared enough space for him to fit through to the breakdown lane, and somehow, my message got through.
Blasting his horn one more time for a good long time, the truck driver hit the brakes and was able to slow down just enough to get behind the Jeep before the Jeep driver could react, and successfully changed lanes and pulled over.
I tried to get a look at the truck driver as I passed to give him a thumbs-up, but the truck was too high and I couldn't even see the door.
I was terrified through the whole ordeal, which honestly only lasted about a minute but felt like an hour, but by that point, I was pissed.
If a vehicle honks, it's most likely because they're trying to warn you of something, like “I have an emergency situation and you're in the way!!” Why the hell would you honk back and not even check to see if something's wrong? There's no way he didn't know.
Plus, I seriously doubt the Jeep driver didn't know what the truck driver was trying to do. A huge truck like that doesn't just have one directional light in the front and one in the back like a car; they've got a whole set of lights along the entire side! There's no way in hell he didn't see the directional light flashing.
No, he had simply decided to be an asshole.
Look, you just don't fuck with huge trucks like that. They can destroy cars. They have, many times in the past. He put his life, my life, my baby's life, and the trucker's life at risk. Not to mention, driving on a blown tire is a great way to bend an axel, and an axel on a truck like that must cost thousands to replace.
And I'm mad I didn't think to get the plate number or the description of the Jeep. It was a white Jeep, but how many of those are there on the road? And I never even glanced at the plate to know what state it was from. It could have been from anywhere; tourist season is just beginning and we get tourists from all over. And honestly, the more I think about it, it wasn't even necessarily a Jeep. It looked like one from a distance, but it might not have been that particular make.
This could have ended a whole lot worse. I mean, maybe I'm overreacting a little (thanks, pregnancy hormones, for turning minor things into major things!), but I really do feel my safety was at risk because of that asshole.
