Another Sucky driver, who gets caught and pawned

[mattm04]

A few days ago I was driving down a two lane road, in one of the no passing zones (both directions). It was raining hard, the speed limit is 45. I had rained hard for a long time and their were large puddles on the road, covering some sections. I was going between 25 and 40 depending on the amount of water on the road. All of a sudden some lady in a Mercedes SUV comes flying down the road and is tailgating me, while on the phone, and honking her horn. She illegally passes me and starts to hydroplane as she is passing me slowly inching closer to my car. I am forced to pull to the right. I tried to miss the muddy lawns but skidded off the road. She recovers and flys down the road at 60+. I call the police, then put it if 4-wheel drive and eventfully get my self out.

I continue on my merry way and the next town/state over I see a few police cars and a fire truck on the side of the road. As I wait my turn to pass I see it was Mrs. Asshole, who has skidded off the road and scraped her black Mercedes against a tree. The front bumper and passenger mirror and some other body parts are all over the grass.

A few days later I see the police logs in the paper. Several motorists had called 911 to report her, and she was also involved in a a hit and run. She was arrested for hit and run, some sort of reckless driving charge, and a few other things. she was not injured.

[Chanlin]

She illegally passes me and starts to hydroplane

Seriously, why is it that people ignore signs like this that scream "maybe I should slow down." Losing control of your car, adverse weather or no, is generally a good indicator that the conditions on the road you are on are not 100% safe.

I've had a similar experience driving here in Ohio during the winter where a car passed me at about 50mph (in a 35 zone) spun out, hit the ditch, pulled out, passed me again, spun out, hit the ditch again, pulled out goes to pass me and promptly got pulled over by the local cops.

[bainsidhe]

The front bumper and passenger mirror and some other body parts are all over the grass.

Body parts? Boy did this make me blink. I had to reread it before I realized what you meant.

[Sliceanddice]

we had a big thundarstorm last night.
it happened right when i go to the store,and when i got out, the parking lot was wanting to flood.
just walking to and from the car (drove over to the door and got out) got my glasses to wet for me to see properly out of. so my illegal to drive without glasses where taking off, i drove 25 or under griubbing my steering wheel for dear life because the world was blurry and it was raining, and people are stupid, at least 3 cops drove past me.
if i saw that i would slam on my breaks the moment she tailgated me, because i was high strong and nervose and car would be in my trunk and thats no fun...

[protege]

Seriously, why is it that people ignore signs like this that scream "maybe I should slow down."

Uh, because she was an idiot? Seriously though, too many people think they're invincible behind the wheel, especially SUV owners. They all think that four-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive, and traction control can make up for a lack of driving ability. In other words, they ignore conditions. In other words, just because you *can* go fast, doesn't mean you should...

In fact, I've seen plenty of SUVs and cars get stuck or wreck, simply because of that mentality. Last winter, I was on my way to work...when some idiot in a Jeep did a 360-spin right in front of me Because I was back far enough, and not going very fast, I was able to steer around that mess.

It's not just SUVs either. Same day, different road...some idiot in a BMW rear-ended a stopped delivery truck. Not sure if he was showing off or what, but he slid right into it. I still don't know why people act like that on slick roads.

That's not to say that I haven't had my own close calls. The main thing I do, is not panic. That only makes it worse! Case in point, some of you remember that I nearly had a serious accident less than a block from home.

How? Well, as I'm slowly coming down the hill, I was literally in the middle of the road. We'd had an ice storm earlier that day. The Tercel's rear end suddenly swung out, and I found myself facing a choice. Do I hit the stone wall on the left, or slide off the road, and over the hill to the right? I said "fuck that," and steered back to the middle. Still ended up spinning the car around, and just *barely* going off the road--if that snow pile hadn't have been there, I'd have rolled it Getting out of the car was bad--I fell on my ass in the driveway

[Gurndigarn]

too many people think they're invincible behind the wheel, especially SUV owners. They all think that four-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive, and traction control can make up for a lack of driving ability. In other words...

... they forget that SUVs have no advantage in the most important area: all-wheel stop.

[mattm04]

... they forget that SUVs have no advantage in the most important area: all-wheel stop.

I drive a SUV. Except I know it is called four wheel DRIVE not 4 wheel STOP for reason. Just like any other car or vehicle you have to know it's limits under the conditions and YOUR limits.

[Kogarashi]

The one thing I hate about my Jeep: going down hills on icy roads. It's got some pretty old anti-lock brakes, so despite proper slow speeds and giving myself plenty of time to ease into the stop, if I'm going downhill, the ABS still kicks in. The brake pedal vibrates like crazy, and I can feel the brakes not really catching at all, and I slide. Ugh. Nearly rear-ended people twice because of that. Never had that problem in my parents' minivan, either.

[marasbaras]

This is the dangers of people trying to sp33k l33t when their are not l33t l1t3r4te.

pwned ... oh, how about just a regular English word?

[Chromatix]

This, of course, is why the Finnish driving course includes a mandatory winter-driving element. Including a skid pan session.

[Acolyte]

she was not injured.

Darn.

[seigus]

I was driving down a highway in Texas when a big caddy BLEW past me like I was going backwards. About five miles later I passed several cars pulled over, helping the driver out of his UPSIDE DOWN hunk of metal.