Oh, the highways of America are going to be so exciting! Here’s a story of two angry dudes responding to driving too closely.
Both drivers pulled into the parking lot of a local car wash and stepped out of their vehicles, according to ABC affiliate WZZM-TV. Witnesses said the tailgating driver fired first, and the other driver returned fire.
When ambulances arrived, the men — Ionia residents James Pullam, 43, and Robert Taylor, 56 — were given medical care and transported to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead, Detroit News reported.
I demand the right to have a car with flamethrowers and machine guns mounted on it! It’s going to be the only way to navigated the savage wilderness of I94 someday.
Glad I’m not a Kennedy.
I used to take some small satisfaction in fucking with doofuses who rode too closely behind.
I’d never brake check or anything of that sort.
But the main thoroughfare I traveled upon was a two lane winding, hilly highway with sporadic passing zones.
I drive the speed limit. Most people get really antsy about things when you do that, and they do things like riding closer so they can start passing you faster. But that’s pretty much the dumbest thing you can do when the opportunity to pass is so limited. There’s not a lot of time to gain the momentum to do so quickly.
So it’s better to start accelerating way back before you need to pass so that you are already going faster than the driver you’re intending to pass. Otherwise, all you’re doing by tailgating is bullying the slower driver into a position where, were there oncoming traffic, they would be the one to slow down or run the risk of being caught in a horrible head-on or side-swipe collision.
The psychology of driving is an excerpt in human aggression. For the situation I just outlined, it’s like, they think as soon as their nose passes your tail, and because you’re the “weaker” by virtue of being slower, then you must be the one to acquiesce to their insistence on the limited space which cannot be occupied by you both.
So what do I do? Occasionally, right before a passing zone, I’ll put my left blinker on to signal a turn, but without braking. Without fail, the car behind will drop back to what I consider a reasonable distance by the time the passing lane is upon us. Then I’ll roll my window down and give the universal sign for it being safe to pass, all while they are continuing to accelerate to catch up to their previous spot as a way of protesting the attempt to control their dangerous behavior the first time.
So they then pass with speed, and I feel safer doing that than waiting for them to swerve into oncoming traffic while my vehicle takes up the majority of their view. Using their rage against them so that they drive less like a maniac.
I’d say this is our Mad Max Present, not our Mad Max Future.
A 20-year-old University of North Texas student crashed into an electrical pole in Denton early Friday morning after being shot in the head in an apparent road rage incident. Article.
“Hey, you got a problem?” the unidentified man yells. “You got a problem, bro? Get the f*ck out motherf*cker. Let’s do it, you want to hit the front of my car? F*ck you!” […] I remained calm for two reasons. One.. I was filming.. Two.. I had a pistol in my lap under a coat. (I have a conceal carry license) If the window broke and he assaulted me, I was going to protect myself.” Article.
Pshaw. I demand tactical nuclear weapons. It’s my constitutional right.
I can imagine them strutting around in the past, telling their friends, “Yup. Got my ‘concealed carry’ today. You should get yours. There’s a lot of idiots out there.”
Now they’re both dead.
Idiots.
Darwin award nominees.
grumpyoldfart @ 5:
I feel for those who loved them. No one should be dead because of an angry moment. I know I’ve been angry enough in my life to do some dreadfully stupid things. It’s fortunate I don’t like guns at all, and way back then, they weren’t nearly as numerous as they are now, when it seems like every other person has one. (Speaking about the States only.)
Some thoughts:
Self-driving cars can’t get here fast enough for me.
Both concealed carry and open carry ought to be reserved for law enforcement only.
Look, that’s not indicative of all gun-owners. Most are well-trained, calm, rational people. They would never do anything like that. This might even be a false flag operation to make gun-owners look bad. I can’t believe people are taking this seriously. It’s obvious that those guys were mentally ill. Will everyone stop talking about gun control? That won’t help! There are too many guns!
/s
I wonder which of them was the goodest guy with a gun?
I’ve given up, surrendering the lead to the tailgater. As in maintain speed until I can pull to the right, then carefully slow while waving them forward. Usully get a wave for that surrender, rarely an insult for being the slowpoke. Occasionally karma strikes back and you’ll shortly pass the former tailgater, stopped by the Trooper.
I still fear seeing karma get more physical, as in seeing the tailgater in a ditch where the road suddenly curves, but haven’t seen one yet, so fingers crossed I never do.
even so, I always ask myself how much I lose by letting them pass. I answer myself “doesn’t matter, too small, insignificant, better safe than sorry”. Better to laugh at the road rage than be involved.
When I first started refining my driving skills, took a perverse joy in inducing road rage in other drivers (to a pretty mild degree actually) Honestly, I’ve outgrown that behavior.
Imagine if only one of them had had a gun. How would the other guy possibly have been able to defend himself?
Why not? Only irresponsible gun owners carry a loaded weapon in public. All gun safety regs say the gun should be unloaded and open when carrying in public for the intrinsic safety of all concerned.
Based on how law enforcement uses firearms I wouldn’t even go this far.
Need, you really need to invest in a sarcasm detector.
^^
Nerd @ 13:
Psssssssssst, you missed this part of mkoormtbaalt’s comment:
Damn ed iPhone keyboard. My 15 was @ Nerd, not Need.
Yes I did.
Sorry mkoormtbaalt. Mea cupla.
Witnesses said, “But they were very polite about it”.
And they were licensed and legal!
jonmelbourne wrote:
Well, at least one would have motivation to try and deescalate the situation instead of opening fire…
I must beg to differ. This ended as it should be. If there were more of these (much more), we wouldn’t NEED gun control.
Combine the two: Self-driving sentient Dark Star–style planet bursting bombs.
It will save the Vogons a lot of trouble.
At least this story had a happy ending.
wcorvi:
kdemello1980:
Obviously, neither one of you took The failure mode of clever is asshole on board. Fuck right off, both of you.
Caine, You might want to describe or reference what “[t]he failure mode of clever is asshole ” is…
Hint: To the best of my knowledge, the quote is confusing. It should be “The failure mode of clever is ‘asshole.‘” Please note the added ‘quote‘–marks.
Or to dispense with quips and hints:
Don’t fucking celebrate people dying, no matter how stupid they are and don’t wish more would die the same way. They were somebody’s loved ones.
In Xanadu did Culpa Can’t a mighty Thunder Dome decree.
jonmelbourne (#12) –
Imagine if only one of them had had a gun. How would the other guy possibly have been able to defend himself?
If one of them hadn’t had a gun, he probably would have driven to a police station or stayed in his car and not tried to play tough guy…which, of course, is what he should have done and would still be alive. Why do people insist on escalating situations instead of letting stuff go?
And here I just moved into a new place and setup my gaming books this afternoon along with a very old copy of Car Wars. Which I saw was reprinted a couple days ago. Now I understand why. =)
With places like Texas introducing open carry I wouldn’t be surprised if someone introduces legislation to allow vehicle mounted weapons. If you can carry an AR15 slung over your shoulder why shouldn’t you be able to pintle mount a Barrett .50 caliber rifle, or one of those semiauto versions of a Browning M1919 or MG 34 machine gun, on your Bronco?
…said every person who was never an “innocent bystander”.
I wonder what James Brady would have said.
You can make half of your dream come true.