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CONVERSATION WITH A MASS MURDERER: See Dec. 19th Blog.


TAILGATING, A CLOSE ONE

Last night at 11:35 PM I had a close call and it was a situation I continually try to avoid. I hate tailgaters, the stupid s.o.b.s, the Morons of the Highway. I try to keep a safe distance, but keep my speed the same as the car ahead. If they're following too close I cautiously tap the brake light and usually they drop back.

Last night we were approaching a left turn lane, after coming over the #154 mountain pass from Santa Barbara. The SUV ahead had slowed a couple times, obviously unsure and looking for the turn and I slowed as well, so when he came to the turn lane, he had slowed his speed by about twenty mph (though it wasn't necessary there), but the car behind me was coming up too close even though I was braking.

Suddenly there was a noise and I thought I was hit, but just as quickly saw a light colored car to his right hitting the gravel, then fishtail in front of him, and head straight across the highway, both northbound lanes, then the southbound lane, then a wide island, and a southbound entry lane, fifty foot more of grass and disappear down a hill, all the while traveling at warp speed.

With six cars in the turn lane behind me, I made the turn across the highway and then pulled over and let them pass, flipped a u-turn and returned to the highway island and found an SUV there, whose driver had called the Highway Patrol. Then a young guy appeared out of the darkness and said the woman driver was alright, but her car was in a deep ditch. She had hit his right rear bumper and torn it loose, so he was parked way across the highway.

When you've got three cars ahead of you braking, one an SUV with a light up high, how in the hell can you come screaming up and hit someone? Then, drive about 250 to 300 feet across all the roads and grass without turning or braking at all? It was almost funny to see her do that sharp left in the gravel and then just keep going straight ahead and disappear right over the hill and down into the ditch, just unbelievable. The Patrol car was there in a few minutes and I gave my name and address as a witness, and then drove home.

I've had these large Pick-ups and SUVs five and ten feet off my tail-end at night, when I am car #10 in a row of cars in the left lane, and my speed is the same as those ahead. Now, where can I go? We're all passing a long line of cars and trucks doing 55/60, and going faster than they are, but are cars in the left lane supposed to dart to the right to give way to some guy anxious to do 90/100?

One night a Pick-up with huge tires ran by on my left on the median, spraying gravel and dirt all over the place and gained one space in line. He was mad, because I flashed my brakelights when he was ten feet off my tail. He had dropped back, then raced up until his headlights were right in my rear window. Damn.

One morning in L.A. a guy whistled past us, cutting in and out of lanes, just as we rounded a big curve and there, ahead, was a huge traffic jam. He hit at least six cars trying to find a hole in which to stop! What a jerk.