Velociworld

Nail it, go right, but not too quickly, try to clip the passenger side quarter of the asshat the pulled out in front of you. If it works like it does on TV, the moron' will hit the rail, and the "innocent" will "check up". Just be sure to turn on your blinker. ;)

Actually, I'd call it a dilemma rather than a conumdrum. But, I'd probably pull into the other lane and hope for the 50% chance of it being open.

I probably would have spelled conundrum correctly the first time, too.

I'd nail his right-rear-corner, like RedNeck suggested. But I'd hit the breaks and the blinker. No reason to put ANOTHER innocent car into an accident. At least in this scenario, HE is possibly at fault. If you clip an innocent guy in the right lane, it would be your fault.

I'd also get out of the car screaming and holding my neck/back. But I'm a bastard.

I've actually had to slam on breaks to avoid this situation before, when some moron pulled out in front of me. Apparently some people believe "yield" means "traffic yields to me." Gr.

So yeah, screw the jerkoff who pulls out in front of you. (especially when said jerkoff pulls out and is going slower than the speed limit by 30mph while they get up speed)

Well, Dash, since I intended to use "dilemma" in the next sentence, I opted for the 2nd definition of "conundrum" here, to avoid repetition:

A paradoxical, insoluble, or difficult problem; a dilemma: “the conundrum, thus far unanswered, of achieving full employment without inflation” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.).

Just saying. But feel free to correct my diction any time.

I've always swerved right. A chance over no chance wins out in my book. So far the odds have been in my favor.

(But though I am a very confident, if not aggressive driver, that move always scares the shit out of me.)

So Key goes for the possible multiple fatality scenario over a given fender bender. I'm down with that. I would, too. After all, it's not MY family's life I'm throwing into the mix when I pull that maneuver. Ha. Ha.

Well, it is at least an educated guess.

I'm in the left lane, and therefore travelling along quite a bit faster than the right-laners, provided I have my way anyway...

It gives me time to take inventory as I pass by them.

(Besides, I've survived a side-swipe, better than being rear-ended actually, in terms of pain anyway...body work is another story. : D)

I20 westbound west of Ft. Worth, back when there was nothing along the road. I'd taken my boss's mother over for a doctor's appointment in her car, an eighties Ford with the usual wallowy suspension. Lovely day, CAVU, 95F or so.

I'm in the left lane (of two) doing, oh, call it seventy. In the right lane, three-quarters of a mile ahead, is a white recent Chrysler with big tires, little hubcaps, and an abundance of antennas, with two big men in suits in the front seat. (No flashing PLAINCLOTHES sign. Pity.)

Audrey said something and I responded. When I looked back, Mr. DEA or whatever had decided to jump the median to go back to Ft. Worth. He was sitting broadside to the fast lane with his front wheels just touching the grass, planning to eeeeeease out into the prarie.

Now I keep pretty good situational awareness, and knew there wasn't anybody in the right lane next to me. I also knew that with the stationary object under seventy-five yards away Something Had To Be Done.

So, OK. Brake, hard, so as to get as much load on the front-axle marshmallows as possible and stiffen 'em up a bit. Hard right 'til the rear breaks, then hard left 'til it grabs hold again. I flashed by with a good six inches clearance, still doing sixty or so.

I swear to God the asshole never knew I was there. In the rear-view he went on into the median and gunned it, fishtailing and throwing up dust as he got up to speed eastbound.

I also swear to God that if I hadn't had an 82-year-old woman in the car with me, I would have gripped the wheel with both hands, locked all four wheels, and T-boned the M*F*r, which given the distances involved would have happened at fifty MPH or so -- survivable for me, with seatbelt and air bag; not so happy for Lt. Fenton Fuzzbutt in a car without even door reinforcing rails.

But Audrey wouldn't ride with me any more, anyway.

Regards,
Ric Locke

Your input is always, ah, interesting, Ric. Did you have a midget in the car? Just asking.

V-man, please pardon my faux pas. Although it may seem paradoxical at this point, I would never be so presumptuous as to correct your diction, fine sir. In other words... sorry, dude.

Hey, numbnuts. Clipping the evildoer at a 45 degree angle, and spinning out like Starsky and Hutch is not a real scenario. Sorry. Let's get fact-based, here.

No midgets (I'd taken the pledge the year before.)

That is an absolutely true story, containing no exaggerations. It was some years ago. I don't have the reflexes to duplicate it any more.

I have great respect for uniformed cops, most especially the guys with the Augean task of maintaining some semblance of order on the highways and byways. But an unmarked car has exactly the same status, in my mind, as any other dude in a tricked-out hotrod with a gun on his hip and an armed gang ready to back him up; which is to say, they're extortionists with delusions of citizenship. There's an INS agent, no doubt retired, who's alive today because I found a black&white next to a stop light I could run before I brought myself to pull out the Colt. Trying to pull me over with a white light from an unmarked car may be hazardous to your health.

As for the original question: if you want to make a point and are willing to pay the price for it, wait 'til the last instant, lock all four wheels, and enjoy the ride. Here in Texas you'd lose automatically -- it's a legal presumption that a hit from behind is the back guy's fault.

Otherwise take another lane. Even if there's somebody there, a sideswipe at a relative speed of perhaps 10 MPH, max, is gonna be easier on everybody than a linear collision at fifty. Look at it this way: he may flinch and push you back, so you get your rear-ender anyway.

If you're thinking of it from an aggressive-rights, he's-not-entitled point of view you're just looking at yourself in the mirror.

Regards,
Ric Locke

And dammit, I am gonna add this:

If you aren't maintaining awareness of what the cars around you are doing you don't belong on the road. I realize that this rule is violated by 99.99% of all drivers, but that doesn't make it right. Part of that is always having in the back of your mind where you'd go if the lane suddenly doesn't have any room.

Inhabiting a 25 MILLION-grain projectile moving at 100 ft/sec or so is a responsibility. The fact that the others in the vicinity are a good bit less well-directed than a robot cruise missile just makes the task harder.

In the situation you described, if I realized I'd lost enough situational awareness to not know whether or not the right lane was open I'd head for the median. There aren't all that many places where there isn't some space there (downtown Knoxville comes to mind.)

Regards,
Ric

I came to my decision a few years ago when I installed my huge oversize monster bumper on the front of the Dodge Dually. I have no problems with running over the idiot, and his passengers. I know that is a little brutal but now I have one less decision in life.

I don't repair the dents in my truck. That way, I apprear to be a really wreckless driver with no insurance.

People get out of MY way.

Adding to what Ric said, you maintain CONSTANT awareness of all four sides when you ride a motorcycle.

Or you die.

It carries over into cage driving, too.

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