OT: Drivers, what would you do?

Quit tailgating! Even though the idiot should have changed lanes, you should have just passed him on the right and been done with it. IMO tailgating is far worse and dangerous than being a clueless left lane driver. You are just adding to the problem by tailgating him. Now if you say you weren't tailgating him, then him slamming on his brakes wouldn't have been a problem.

How many car lengths ahead of you was this other car when you decided to pass?

What kind of car was it?

Yep, defensive driving is the best practice. There are 6 lanes and he sticks to the lane with another car in front of him.

Now going back to the original question, given the circumstances, I would continue to pass until I am a hundred feet away from the other car and immediately after keeping a safe distance maintain a constant slightly slower speed, maybe listen to some slow music and think of a happy place so that my blood pressure will go down=)

You're making two incorrect assumptions here.

First, the driver of the truck wasn't me.

Second, he wasn't tailgating. He was getting close to where he would have been, but he wasn't at that point when the car driver slammed on his brakes. If he had been, there probably would have been an accident.

Finally, I asked what you'd do. Remember, this is a situation you could have easily found yourself in because the truck was *not* tailgating. Please answer the question.

First, please answer my question about the other car. Sedan? Van? Another truck or SUV? Then I'll answer your question.

I was never a driver in the situation I described. I was a witness to it in this case. I'm not trying to defend the car driver, either. I just want to find out what you'd do if you were in this situation.

To answer your question, the truck was about two seconds behind the car, which is a much better guage of safe distance than the ancient car-length measure. Two seconds is considered the minimum safe distance for following another vehicle. The car slammed its brakes on before the truck ever got close enough to have been considered tailgating.

**To underscore the point that the truck was not tailgating, the driver of the car admitted that the truck was not tailgating.**

Something small. I think it was a Mazda 323.

Ah ha! Now we have all the information we need. Here's the answer: I drive a pickup, and because I am the best driver in America, I've noticed that my headlights often shine right into the rear view or side mirrors of small cars ahead of me. Based on this, I would never have been behind a car like that on an empty highway unless there was no other choice for some reason.

Even if my lights did not annoy other drivers, I still wouldn't have been right behind that car. You can't get into an accident with another vehicle if there is no other vehicle near you. I would've been two lanes to the right, and I would've arranged to put 1/4 mile of distance between us.

Or, the short answer: The pickup driver in your example was a typical stupid driver and should be shot dead & fed to coyotes.

Yup, that's what the steering wheel is for.

Read my previous response to the OP about headlights. If you still don't get it, please don't tell me. It's been such a nice day and I'm not in the mood to be nauseated at the moment.

Can't answer my question, eh? Well, I appreciate the effort anyway.

In which you completely ignored the question, ROFL!

You asked me what I would've done. I can't answer that question because I wouldn't have put myself in that situation.

You were obviously looking for an answer. What answer were you looking for?

Maybe you should stop playing games with your question. You asked "What would you do?" If "you" were the driver of the pickup, or an observer in a

3rd vehicle?

Into what? I greatly appreciate that you answered my question. You're the first and only person who's been able to do so, apparently. I does take a little imagination, but some people can't organize enough brain cells to say anything other than they wouldn't have been in that situation.

But then what? You're going faster than him, are you going to pass on the right? I guess since it's a three lane and he's in the left, you could do so with some amount of safety if you were in the right lane (as opposed to the center lane) when you passed.

There's another part to this story, though. And since you have the imagination to put yourself in the above scenario, you might want to imagine a potentially different response...

Shoot the driver of the car? That was the right answer? If so, you're as much of a moron as the guy driving the pickup truck too close. I'll bet he also had his brights on the whole time.

"Ernie Sty" wrote in news:Z5CdncTgW_t2VZbanZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

If passing on the right was a legal option (as it is in my area), I would have simply done that in sufficient time so your left-lane-bandit wouldn't have had to make a move.

OK, I would back off, wait till it was safe to pass, resist the temptation to do something to piss the guy off, and just try to relax and calm down.

If you actually need to ask what is the right thing to do, then maybe you need to take a defensive driving course. Of course not putting yourself in that position in the first place by being too aggressive and tailgating is the correct answer. I think the hardest, but best thing to do when driving these days is to learn to just let shit go.

Thank you.

How on earth did you conclude that I "need to ask what is the right thing to do"? I'm asking the people here what each of them would do. I'm surious to see how people would respond in this situation, not looking for advice.

I agree with that sentiment. But the guy wasn't tailgating.

I agree. And you'll see how your answer would hold up when I post the rest of this story.