Strange Driving Experience

[TX-Dennis]

It's a different world out there. The cell phone thing has contributed to many motorcycle riders, me included, quitting. Drivers from third world countries with no regard for human life and no intention of learning to do better are a menace.
I drove truck in the 70s and 80s and developed an uncanny ability to predict what other drivers were going to do before they did it. The advent of cell phone drivers driving by surprise and more just plain uncaring drivers has changed the game.
In the current USA trucking industry, drivers from Southern Asia are despised more than drivers from Central America. It's more than just their driving... I've heard it's even worse in Canada.

For entertainment watch some YouTube videos of Asian bus drivers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o-Wzhzx1o

Out here in the oilfield it's the Cuban truckers who are the biggest menaces. Hundreds of Cubans have moved here to take jobs hauling sand and oilfield supplies. They have no regard for traffic laws and evidently no concern for other drivers. Almost every day there is an accident or two involving a Cuban truck driver.

I may sound "racist," but I assure you I am not. My wife is from Cuba, and she agrees with me.

Edit to add - those Indian bus drivers are INSANE!

 

[CalifEd]

When I lived in DC, one snowy day in the office we were talking about driving in snow. One lady said that if she was ever in a skid in snow/ice, she would close her eyes, let go of the steering wheel and slam on the brakes. The scary part was she was a native DC person and was totally serious in her comments!

Maybe she believes in the current method of long range planning being promoted in the area; "In God We Trust" or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here".

 

[Kevin G]

I was southbound in the middle lane of the Maine turnpike/I 95, three lane 70 mph speed limit. I was slowly overtaking a car in the right lane and happened to notice another vehicle approaching rather quickly also in the right lane. It made no sense, when he got up alongside me, slowed down, I looked over and the guy was reading a book with his car, apparently on auto pilot.
Kevin G


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hemiram]

One of the craziest ones I saw was about 40 years ago on I475 in Toledo. It was just starting to drizzle, and a guy in a red Chevy Cavalier was snaking his way through busy traffic at about 20 over the speed limit. There is a seam that goes across the road at about a 45 degree angle at one point, and when he hit it, his back end came around and he rolled the car once and it ended up on the driver's side, sliding along and it finally stopped. The guy in the car was yelling "My hand!". I got out and about 5 people were pulling him out of the passenger side. He was yelling about his hand and it took a couple of seconds to realize he had ground off his pinky finger and about 3/4" of his hand under it, down to his wrist. OSP pulled up and the trooper looked like he was going to faint when he saw it. They called an ambulance and carted him off to Toledo Hosp. I never found out what they did to his hand. Skin grafts for sure,

 

[THE PILGRIM]

So one time I went TDY up to the Dog Charlie.
Was blessed to get a rental car approved.
We had biz at the Puzzle Palace and over at Andrews, Systems Command HQ.
The GSA Contractor Car Rental Co was different.
What a surprise! They had a lot of cars and every color made.
But they had only one Brand and Model.
Chevy Camaro. And all the roads were icy and slick!
We managed to avoid disaster, but it was exciting!
I have never been so happy to turn in a rental car!

 

[dogkinkead]

I have lived in 7 different cities since I got my license. Each place had lots of crazy/dangerous drivers.

The worst was the Washington, D.C. metro area. Most of those drivers learned to drive somewhere else - especially the foreigners. There was no way to anticipate what the other guy would do next - especially if it snowed.

DC beltway is the worse place to drive, I’ve lived and driven in Maracaibo, New Jersey, New York , Kansas, Maryland and now Virginia. I-95 and the belt way around DC takes the cake

 

[mtgianni]

One of the craziest ones I saw was about 40 years ago on I475 in Toledo. It was just starting to drizzle, and a guy in a red Chevy Cavalier was snaking his way through busy traffic at about 20 over the speed limit. There is a seam that goes across the road at about a 45 degree angle at one point, and when he hit it, his back end came around and he rolled the car once and it ended up on the driver's side, sliding along and it finally stopped. The guy in the car was yelling "My hand!". I got out and about 5 people were pulling him out of the passenger side. He was yelling about his hand and it took a couple of seconds to realize he had ground off his pinky finger and about 3/4" of his hand under it, down to his wrist. OSP pulled up and the trooper looked like he was going to faint when he saw it. They called an ambulance and carted him off to Toledo Hosp. I never found out what they did to his hand. Skin grafts for sure,

I live near a popular recreation area for 4 wheelers and side by sides. Our EMT's responded to several last year with rentals who put their hands out when the machine started to roll. At least four resulted in amputation of the hands.

 

[ladder13]

I would have stopped. It could have been a medical emergency.

Being a first responder never gets out of your blood.

 

[hemiram]

I live near a popular recreation area for 4 wheelers and side by sides. Our EMT's responded to several last year with rentals who put their hands out when the machine started to roll. At least four resulted in amputation of the hands.

I have a friend whose family has been into 3 and 4 wheelers since back in the early 70's. I don't remember the model, maybe Trail 90? Anyway, Everyone of them, parents and kids alike have surgery scars, missing tips of fingers, burn marks, etc, with one exception, my friend's oldest brother managed to make it through decades of riding with no more than bruises. Even their mother, who was about as timid a rider as I've ever seen broke a couple of fingers when her 3 wheeler tipped over. My my friend and the youngest sister had the most injuries, the sister is missing a couple of fingertips from her hand getting pinched somehow during a ride up at the lake, and she broke her left leg the second time she took her 4 wheeler out after retiring the 3 wheeler. My friend has scars all over his arms and legs from falls and swiping things. I'm kind of glad I never got anything new after my minibike was retired, as I got hurt all the time riding it. I've been in 2 major car accidents in my life, and several minor ones and some of those injuries are permanent, so I don't think the off road thing was for me.

 

[Yendor357]

I drove for UPS for 40 years. The last 25, I was pulling trailers, various times of the day and night. We went until they closed the roads. I could tell you stories all day.

 

[Greyman50]

Driving in Saigon was the absolute worst, driven in most major cities on the East Coast.

 

[madmikeb]

I was coming out of Tucson in my Mustang last fall heading towards Vail on a 2 lane road with a a 45 mph speed limit. There was a line of traffic coming towards me and all of a sudden a car veered out of the lane and was coming at me head on about 2 car lengths ahead. I yanked the steering wheel to the right into the ditch and they went by me with scant inches to spare. Then I was heading straight for a road sign, yanked the wheel again towards the road and barely missed the road sign. To say it scared the hell out of my wife would be an understatement. I just reacted without thinking about it, If I hadn't it would have been head on.

I've been here a year now, and the drivers here are incredibly bad. Every day there are accidents on I10 and rollovers in town Tucson. How you roll a car over at an in town intersection I'll never understand.

 

[johngalt]

Those Top Gear road trips have been in places where driving looks insane.

 

[Doug M.]

The odds are good that this driver was impaired. Most people ave no idea how little it takes to really downgrade driving ability. Medical issues and cell phone are also good theories.

I'm not a cop anymore, so I am not stopping to interact with such a driver. Some of them are off kilter and I want nothing to do with them. I will call 911 as soon as I perceive a significant problem such as you described, well before the crash. That driver obviously need professional interaction and assistance as soon as possible.

 

[LVSteve]

I was coming out of Tucson in my Mustang last fall heading towards Vail on a 2 lane road with a a 45 mph speed limit. There was a line of traffic coming towards me and all of a sudden a car veered out of the lane and was coming at me head on about 2 car lengths ahead. I yanked the steering wheel to the right into the ditch and they went by me with scant inches to spare. Then I was heading straight for a road sign, yanked the wheel again towards the road and barely missed the road sign. To say it scared the hell out of my wife would be an understatement. I just reacted without thinking about it, If I hadn't it would have been head on.

I've been here a year now, and the drivers here are incredibly bad. Every day there are accidents on I10 and rollovers in town Tucson. How you roll a car over at an in town intersection I'll never understand.

Two things I have noted since coming to the SW in '97. There is a set of the population who cannot abide a 45 mph limit on any road outside of town. If the guy at the head of the line isn't moving at 5 over (as a bare minimum) these people rise to the boil quite quickly. If the road ahead of the guy at the front is clear by more than 200 yards, asphalt agoraphobia sets in. The weird set are screaming at the guy at the head of the line to "keep up with traffic". The fact that the line has been those same 200 yards behind for the last 10 minutes doesn't wash with these weirdos. You must close the gap or this will come out of the road and we will all die...



The fact that to close the gap the guy up front will have to speed substantially doesn't enter into it, for some strange reason.

The second part is very few out here know how to pass on a busy two-lane road. As most of the US tailgates (by the standard to which I was trained in Europe) they can never see far enough up the road to see if it is safe. Also, Mr Frustrated from above hits the accelerator hard and then pulls out. That's not how to pass on the public road, at least not where I learned to drive. I not only hang back but I will go into the opposite lane to take a peek in case there is something still being obscured despite hanging back. Once I see it is clear, then I mat the throttle until level with what I'm passing. I have no interest with what the speedo reads at that point. Plan A is to spend the minimum time on the other side of the road. Yes, that will get me a ticket in some places, but a ticket is better than dead.

As for rolling a car at a city intersection, We get plenty of that in Vegas, too.

 

[rockquarry]

Keep in mind that the drivers you all describe are not only rude, immature, impatient, and arrogant, but they are more important than you are, at least in their feeble brain.

 

[Speedo2]

To Greyman50: this may bring back some memories; it was like driving in a school of fish:

 

[Muley Gil]

Driving in Afghanistan was fun too.

 

[Greyman50]

To Greyman50: this may bring back some memories; it was like driving in a school of fish:

thanks, guess nothing changes. Most fun I had was driving a M-113 through Saigon, like Moses parting the Red sea, lol. Daughter and her husband went to Vietnam last year and sent me some videos and many pics.

 

[gwpercle]

Asleep at the wheel...
Making a You-Tube Driving Film ...
Gary