Got hit in the head

Hello Book Guy,

If you don't have a serious injury, then you got off lucky. There are a lot nuts around. I hope you are feeling better soon. And, my 2 cent advice is even if you're in the right while driving you're in the wrong. It just isn't worth the hassle. Who knows the guy could have been dumped by his girlfriend or lost his job and is only temporarily crazy.

Road rage has become a serious problem. You unknowingly cut a driver off and the next thing that you know, he has pulled a gun and is shooting at you. Having said that. My favorite dancers always ask how my drive over was? I say fine. I fooled the smokies and only gave the bird to 2 truck drivers.

Funny thing is, I didn't even cut him off. I just ALMOST accidentally cut him off. I had started my change-of-lane to the right, got halfway into the new lane, and THEN he started revving to go around me on the right. I avoided him (from in front) by watching what he was doing and going the other way -- basically, helping him to pass me on the right, by un-changing my lane change. Maybe when I noticed him giving me the bird, at the ensuing stoplight, he simply thought I was ogling him and "staring him down." I did my best to avert my eyes, look pleasant and meek, just let it pass. I guess he took li'l ol' me as threatening or aggressive. I still can't figure out what pissed him off so.

Except of course the danged suburban traffic. That was pissing ME off ...

... but my neck still hurts. Very painful, a deep muscle sore like getting a charlie-horse in the thigh, except it's in the trapezius.

Sometimes it may be hard to tell what pissed somebody else off. I did read about road rage and I read instead of averting your eyes away from the enraged driver, it may be best to recognize them and act like you're sorry via your look or hand gestures. Ignoring them can piss them off even more I read. I usually like such a driver if I ever encounter one to have as much of the road as they like and to drive away. I probably think they are in the wrong but when it comes to violence, it's usually best to avoid it.

I remember one time I signaled to get into the left turn lane. There was a car in front of me a moment ago and still in the same lane driving a bit slowly. They did not signal so I thought they were going straight. Without any car ahead of me in the turn lane, I started to speed up slightly since the light was green and no one was ahead of me now. The car beside me or pretty much only a foot or two in front of me in the other lane decided they wanted to turn left suddenly. Suddenly they must have noticed me in the turn lane. They got back in their lane and I must have slightly jerked my steering wheel left to make my car go a couple of feet to the left to avoid them. Suddenly after I turned and lost sight of the car, I noticed someone chasing me down a two lane road I was on. I sped up to get away. They sped up faster. I started thinking oh hell, someone must be suffering road rage thinking they got cut off. Suddenly I saw blue lights flashing and was a bit relieved by that. However, they seem to be enraged for some unknown reason claiming they saw me driving eractic. I thought it might be the cops who didn't signal and almost hit me but I didn't tell them that. I just stated it was another car. They claimed they did not see that. Anyway they weren't too nice and were a bit demanding with about 4 guys in swat gear shining flashlights all around and being demanding. I was only going home. Eventually after a big hassle and apparently saying all the right things, they let me go. At one point there, one cop said "I smell alcohol in your car!" What a jerk, he did not. I know he was lying. I did not know that was their standard procedure but I do now. I have never had alcohol in my car and I hadn't drunk a single drink in over a week at that time.

Be careful.

Some people get enraged simply if you are in front of them on the road and holding them up by not driving fast enough or stopping too fast or a number of other reasons. I know because I get a bit irritated myself at people driving slow in the left hand lane when I consider that to be a passing lane. Some people think it's ok to cruise along in that lane slowly or talk on their cell phone etc ignoring other drivers on the road. I get irritated but I don't get enraged to a point where I start hitting them.

I have heard about a few drivers hitting bumpers to help push a car out of the way. I wouldn't recommend that but I have heard a number of others cheer them on when someone did that to someone driving too slow in the left hand lane. It can be hard to determine what enrages someone. You might have a bumper sticker on your car that says something that ticks somebody off. They could be seeking revenge for something somebody did that was driving a car that looked just like yours.

While stationed in Germany in 1983, I was driving one night on the autobahn. Very little traffic. I was driving in the right hand lane (cruising lane) and saw a pair of headlights in my rearview mirror and the car appeared to be going at a VERY VERY high rate of speed. Figuring he would pass me on the left (passing lane) as by law in Germany, I was hit from behind and did a 180 degree spin, hitting the center concreate divider. His vehicle lost control and rolled a couple of time in a ditch on the right. Of course it was his fault. If I had moved over to the passing lane, I would have been at fault if he had tried to pass me then. The driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.

Ever since then, I get really paranoid about tailgaters. Other than common 'road rage', my biggest fear is being tailgated.

BG - Glad to see you aren't hurt seriously and hope you get over the neck problems. Don't hesitate to get it checked on.

I just got back from second trip to doc. They told me it probably wasn't a concussion, and I have to go back in another week. I'm experiencing mild TMJ problems, can't open my mouth as wide as I'd like without discomfort, but they said that might happen. And the area of the target of the blow is sore as heck, like somebody hit it with a tire iron or something. I guess that's to be expected too, duh ...

Well BG it could have been worse. Worse thing now with the mouth problem is that you won't be able to DATY for awhile.

BookGuy: Sorry to hear about your run-in with that nimrod. Hope you are feeling better. Like others have already voiced, you never know what maniac is out there, driving on the road, and it's best to avoice road rage as much as you can. With that said, I am guilty of it myself. Several times I've been "wronged" by another driver, and I have followed some of these drivers VERY close, miles out of my way, while staring them down... just "teaching them a lesson", and letting them know that they pissed me off. Not smart! At the time it feels right, but later I always think of what COULD have happened.

I learned while observing my mother and grandmother as they moved into senectude, that the world-view in life of "teaching them a lesson" or "acting out in order to perform something that they should get a lesson from" is entirely and exactly the mistake. That's the center of the problem. Or at least, so I think. I also have an instinct to do that (though not as often driving, as in the office workplace, eek!) and so I always notice it in others, and always work toward eliminating it in myself. I wonder if I'll ever succeed?

I kind of forgive the dude. I know how annoying life can get. I "get" why he was so pissed off (although of course I disagree with his choice, I can still say I understand how he mistakenly chose it). I'm very proud that I was able to say, "What a MAN! He hit me from behind! TWICE! And drove away before I could even TURN AROUND!" :)

Got a clean bill today. Doc thought maybe I had had lingering minor concussion for the first few days but now I certainly don't. So if I do anything dopey I only have myself to blame. No permanent damage to neck bones, so the X-rays say; no major damage to the cluster of nerves running through the whole area, so say the pinch and wiggle tests (all sorts of weird positions, Doc had to look them up in a reference manual, we had fun checking them out). But the muscles "up in there" (the behind-layer) feel bruised / painful as heck. Doc said I shouldn't really experience any more pain after about a second week from the incident, but I'm guessing it lasts 20 days before I'm normal.

Anyway, now I am free to go get hit in the head again! Think I'll go celebrate. Hmm ... wonder what kind of establishment I should patronize ... hmm ... :)

BG: That is good news. I'm happy for you.

BookGuy I am just wondering how is it that you didn't hear the guy walk up on you? Seems like you would have heard some footsteps. Also no one saw this guy walking around with something in his hand?

Maybe he employed stealth. Or maybe they saw him and thought he was offering to help change a tire.

I was just zoned out. Maybe there were several people filling their cars with gas at this station -- though I frankly can't remember much about what the station looked like right now, for some reason I think there were about six vehicles? It was a big suburban station, branding in red and black, an off-brand styled after Texaco, near the interstate, lots of trucks whooshing by on the road. I probably heard the normal sound of someone driving up to a gas pump, someone getting out of his vehicle and moving toward a pump as though he were pumping gas, and so forth, and just subconsciously ignored it because it seemed innocuous. I hadn't computed that the dude would be so angry as to make a U-turn and hunt me down, and therefore had already pretty much forgotten the incident of cutting him off accidentally.

It's all pretty straightforward. He didn't have to sneak up on me, because I wasn't looking for anyone to be sneaking.

If I remember correctly. :P