[dangerranger]

So today is Friday, the start of a long weekend. I live over 30 miles from my work. The highway I take home connects to Yosemite National Park and two Recreational lakes.
So by the time I get off work and headed home there are a million other people headed the same way I am. I stop on the way home and load 15 bales of hay in the truck making it weigh over 8000 lbs.
At the last stoplight before the highway turns up hill there is a passing lane [ the next safe place to pass is another 10 miles of uphill driving. ] My truck will easily do highway speeds going up hill with a load [but not all will]. When we get to the passing lane a school bus pulls to the right lane to let others pass. [ He is one who can't maintain speed going up!] about three cars ahead of me is a little commuter car, instead of picking up speed and allowing other cars to get out ahead of the bus He slows down so that only "he" can get ahead of the bus. Well the bus driver sees this and brings his bus to a stop, I guess he did not want any of this! The car behind the commuter is now pretty close so the jerk in the little car starts brake checking the cars behind him. But because the bus stopped two cars got around him. that left me directly behind his car.
Now I have already seen him playing games with two other cars but those behind me can't see what's going on [ big truck full of hay]. Without trying to cause too much delay for those behind me I give this guy some room. But he is still speeding away and slowing to 10 miles an hour! This goes on for about 5 miles with him still waving his arms out the window.
Before we got to the next passing area this guy must have gotten some sense of sanity because he takes off to make sure I don't get in front of him. he cuts off two more drivers, and makes a couple quick lane changes to get about 10 cars between us. I'm pretty happy to see him go!
But another couple miles up the road I make my turn off the highway and who ends up right in front of me again?

He see's me behind him and panics, I see him rolling up his windows, and peeking at me in his mirrors, [ I guess to see if I'm going to come out of my truck] The light turns green, He peels out of there, and as he turns I get a good look at him! His kids go to the same school as my grandkids! His wife shops at the same stores as my wife! He lives not more than two miles from my house! But he is looking at me like I'm following him!

Three short stop signs later he turns off in another direction because he still thinks I'm following him!

Now what do I do? The wife and kids are nice enough people. But I'm not usually the kind not to say something!

I did call the school and congratulate their driver for keeping clear of the idiot!

This is a very small community and I am sure to run into him soon.

So what do You all think? Let him be? Let him know who I am and what I think of him?

DR

 

[Chaplain Scott]

I completely understand small town dynamics.

Let it go!!

Just file the incident into your mental files and monitor how he continues to behave. He might just be having a bad day or off his meds.

We never know what other folks may have just gone through.

Besides, you WERE following him, (just to get home of course---again, small town dynamics)

 

[MB53]

move on. some hothead he's not expecting will take care of him for you somewhere down the road.

 

[farsidefan1]

Run over him at the first opportunity :danceban:

Nah - just let it go. Be nice when you see him at the store or whatever. Act like you don't know what a jerk he is.

 

[msgt/ret]

That is like the steering wheel holders that annoy me the most, they will putter along 5mph below the speed limit then they will hammer down just to get to their turn off (90 in a 55) just so they can get there before you then slam on the brakes in total terror at the possibility of having to turn the steering wheel in order to make the exit.

 

[Col.TED]

Hate them lane hogs and you find out they're just too busy talking on their freakin' phones......

 

[GpTom]

I drove 25 miles to work before I retired. I knew other guys who worked in the same plant and lived near me. One day I was behind a real nice guy that I knew and we were going up the road when a semi truck pulled out in front of him. As soon as they got out of town he passed the semi and then slammed on his brakes. I watched him do that to the semi a couple of times before he went on. I caught up and walked into the plant with him. I said you know you were very lucky because that semi could have run right over you. He said I know but he made me mad when he pulled out in front of me. Just goes to show that the nicest people can get a wild hair sometimes when they are driving.

 

[BuckJM53]

Best to just let it go IMHO. While I can understand your thoughts/aggravation here, life is way too short to dwell on the actions of fools.

 

[Doogie]

Why bother? The guy is an idiot...you can't fix that.

 

[luckydog]

I would say something to him. I wouldn't be mean but very matter of fact. It might sink in to him that people he knows are seeing him acting like an idiot. If you say nothing, nothing will change.

 

[dangerranger]

I would say something to him. I wouldn't be mean but very matter of fact. It might sink in to him that people he knows are seeing him acting like an idiot. If you say nothing, nothing will change.

It's not normally in me to not say anything.But I have to live near him. And My wife, Daughter in law, and Grand daughter all use that truck to move their horses, I don't want to see him repeat the performance when one of them are driving because he got away with it once!

I'll let it go for a few days, but it will come up! DR

 

[Chaplain Scott]

DR: The deal about your family using the same truck is a valid point.

The flip side of the coin is that if he's really some kind of sick jerk (as opposed to the normal kind of jerk--which all of us are subject to being occasionally), then by calling him out, to make yourself, your family and the horses all potential targets of sick retaliation. Something to think about.

 

[gasmitty]

I lived in small towns for more than 50 years, and I've consistently observed that even though "everybody knows everybody," some personalities change when people get behind the wheel, and rarely for the better.

I wouldn't confront the guy directly. A more subtle approach is to casually mention to friends in town "boy, you should have seen [bozo] on the highway last week - he passed a school bus but then started brake-checking anyone else who did the same. I really couldn't believe it was him doing that." The best outcome IMO is when the news that "bozo is a jerk on the road" reaches his wife's ears.

 

[marcclarke]

Flie a police report. Get this guy's behavior into the system. He is going to repeat his road rage provocations with other people.

 

[SIGP250]

It's not normally in me to not say anything.But I have to live near him. And My wife, Daughter in law, and Grand daughter all use that truck to move their horses, I don't want to see him repeat the performance when one of them are driving because he got away with it once!

I'll let it go for a few days, but it will come up! DR

I understand driving with heavy loads, on the interstate, state and county roads. I drive in the right lane and only pass trucks going really slow. I see really strange one car wrecks about once a week no where near exits on light traffic days. I can only guess they were distracted. Probably talking or texting on a mobile phone.

Since you think you will see the guy again, I might say something like, were you having car trouble the other day? you seemed to be driving sort of erratically.

 

[Lantern]

Since you think you will see the guy again, I might say something like, were you having car trouble the other day? you seemed to be driving sort of erratically.

In my opinion THIS is great advice!




Side note.... I hope there's a special place for the miserable passive aggressive folks that sit in the hammer lane going as slow as possible in order to create a big line of cars only to race towards the next car in the slow lane so as to not be passed and slow down again. I get upset, but not nearly as upset as when I discover they are playing games with children in the car. SMH

 

[Black Knight]

Let it go. Sooner or later he will pull the same stunt in front of a plain clothes police officer in an unmarked car and will get his winning surprise.

 

[Floyd D. Barber]

 

[CAS_Shooter]

Definitely, let it go.

 

[TSKnight]

I guess I'm with you on saying something. Not only to the jerk, but I'd make a report to local LE too.
It may or may not do any good. At least it will put him on local LE radar to keep an eye out for him.

I talked with a neighbor who regularly ran a stop sign near my place. His excuse was that you can see for miles in both directions and there is very little traffic.
In June he broadsided another neighbors daughter. This past week she said her first words since the accident.