Tailgaters, grrr.

To the person who was behind me earlier: If I can see the person in your backseat picking their nose and then eating the found treasure, you are driving too close to me. Back the fuck off!


Oh, and I thought I'd edit this to include a REAL case of bad driving. See, this bad driving cost my husband and I our car.

So here's the scene. It's a beautiful, stinking hot July afternoon, around 3:45pm. Beautiful blue sky, some white, fluffy clouds, and tons of sunshine. The road is a rural one - route 896 in Lancaster county. It's a simple road - one lane in each direction, double yellow line. This particular stretch of it is flat as can be, and no curves either. So I'm on the northbound side, going about 50mph (the speed limit is 45 mph).

As I'm coming upon a side road (to my right), a vehicle on the southbound side suddenly swerves across the road - RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME - to make the turn. Meanwhile, there was no turn signal, no hesitation, no nothing. The driver was simply going along the southbound side at 40mph or so and decides to make her turn onto this side road - RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.

(Want a diagram? I drew one: Click!)

Notice the RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME PART? I was at the beginning of this side road when she turned. There was NO WAY she could have made it.

So yeah. I hit the horn (what's the point?) and slammed on the brakes, and gritted my teeth, squeezed my eyes shut and prayed, since I knew there was no way I wouldn't hit her. Screeching tires, racing heart beat... BAM! I t-boned her (my front end into the passenger side of her car). The force of impact sent my glasses flying off my face. A baby bottle from the backseat came flying up, bounced off the windshield and then cracked me in the face. And I slammed forward and my chest had a nice little collision with the steering wheel.

Luckily, I had my seatbelt on. I was shaken up and bruised on my chest (steering wheel) and shoulder (seatbelt tightening up), but I was okay.

The car was another story. It was totaled. MAJOR front end damage, and the frame was bent. But there's a silver lining in every cloud, including this one: my sub-compact Kia Spectra managed to demolish (read: total) the other driver's monstrous Buick. Take that bitch!

Pictures, if you're interested: Click!

Edited to add: a lot of witnesses stopped right away, so the trooper had my statement as well as theirs - he ticketed the other driver on the spot. Pwned!