Road Rage

Road rage seems to be all around us lately. Just this past weekend a truck went off a bridge into the water not far from where we live. The driver of the truck has yet to be found but the police are now saying that they think the accident had something to do with road rage.

Road rage is a phrase that wasn't even in our language until quite recently. I find it sad that it nows seems to be a fact of life. I have been driving a long distance to my job-about an hour drive one way, an hour and a half on the way home-for three years now. I am going into my fourth year of making this drive. Most days I don't mind it, because it is just a part of my day and I love my job enough that it is worth it to me to make the drive there. We can't really move, because it doesn't make sense for us, so I drive.

I have watched things progressively become worse as the years have passed by. People are becoming very rude, and it seems that not a day goes by where I don't see someone cut someone else off, or flash their lights to try to get someone to go faster. Today was the worst.

I was on my way to work this morning and I got so scared by a road rage incident that my hands were shaking so bad I almost had to pull over. Even now, hours later I think of it and my heart starts beating faster. This is how it went.

I was driving along, a bit over the speed limit but not much. The speed limit is 90 km/h on our freeway and I was going about 100. This is basically the average speed on the freeway. I came upon a truck that was in the fast lane and it was going slow. I pulled into the right lane to pass it and it started to speed up until it was going 120 km/h. I thought, "Okay, this isn't worth it. I don't need to pass him because he is now going fast than my speed so that is just fine." I was coming upon a car that was going slow in the right lane so I pulled back into the left lane to pass this car. This put me behind the red pickup truck again...the guy that had been going slow and sped up. He started to slow down again, but was still going faster than me, which is fine. I was about two car lengths behind him, because I have seen too many rear-enders in my years of commuting to work. All of the sudden, red pickup truck SLAMMED on his brakes so hard that his rear end fishtailed on the wet highway. Even though I was two cars behind I still had to hit my brakes pretty hard to avoid hitting him because he had stopped so suddenly.

My first thought was "I wonder what was in front of him!" I looked up ahead, but there was nothing there. He had seemingly done this for no reason. It was strange, but I was fine because I had kept my distance and I was safe. I was still behind him, because I was continuing to pass cars on my right. I was still keeping my two car distance between us, thinking all was well. All of the sudden, HE DID IT AGAIN! Again he slammed on his brakes so hard that he fishtailed! I couldn't believe it, it was like I was watching it in slow motion and my heart leaped into my throat as I AGAIN hit my brakes. Keep in mind, we're going about 90 km/h on the freeway! This time it scared me. I thought, "He is doing this for a reason and it is scary." I couldn't get around him or anything though, because there were cars all around us.

My grip tightened on my steering wheel and this time I tried to put about three car lengths between us. Lucky for me that I did because suddenly he hit his brakes AGAIN! This time he slammed on them so hard that he went from going about 90 to going about 55 in the space of about a second. I had to hit my brakes HARD to avoid hitting him, even with the huge distance between us. At this point, my entire body began to shake. I didn't know what his problem was, but he was scaring me so I slowed way down until I could get into the right lane and I just stayed there going about 60 km/h. I just wanted to be away from him!

As I did this, a black Nissan Xterra that had been in the flow of traffic with us suddenly sped up enough so that he would be right beside the red truck. I watched as the man in the Xterra rolled his window down and yelled at red truck man. He waved his arm out the window and I could tell he was chewing him out. I know it's not really nice, but all that I could think was "He's my hero! He's protecting me!"

After awhile, I got my speed up again, and at one point passed the Xterra. As I passed by him I gave him a grin and wave, sort of as a thank you for taking care of me. He gave me a "no problem" look and then adjusted his speed so that he would be following me and sticking with me. The red truck was still there, just hanging with us for some reason, I'm not really sure why.

I don't know why red truck man did that in the first place. I was, amazingly, being a very good driver. I can't always claim that but today I was being especially careful because the roads were wet. I wasn't tailgating him. I wasn't trying to cut him off. It's like Kevin says, "We don't know what was happening in his life." I actually prayed for him, because something must have happened to him to make him be that mean.

I also thanked God for my black Xterra man. He stuck with me all the way to my exit after that incident. I guess he was looking out for me. God sends his angels in all kinds of little ways.

This was the closest I have ever come to having an accident in the three years I have been making that drive. It scared me, bad. I was still shaking when I got to school and told my friend Jen about it. I'm thankful that nothing bad happened...I just wish we could do something about all of the road rage.