Road Ragers In a Jeep

by Shari
(Syracuse )

It was late in the afternoon on a Friday, in January. I was on a busy highway headed an hour away to start my weekend. I am lucky because I drive a company car which allows for personal mileage, as long as the car is driven only in the state in which it is registered.

I was in the left hand lane, which had slowed considerably, so I decided to move into the right hand lane. I did all the proper things; turned my signal light on, checked my mirrors, looked over my shoulder, and truly judged it to be clear, and changed lanes.

Unfortunately, there was a jeep just behind me. Whether or not they were cut off, or it was a little close, I really don't know, but obviously I goofed up. I tried my best to just forget it and drive on (I would have signaled a "sorry" gesture, but I was worried that it could be misinterpreted as something else).

The next thing I knew, the driver of the jeep sped up, very obviously, and deliberately cut off a driver in the left hand lane to get next to me, and had his passenger throw something at my car. The driver immediately cut me off (very, very close to hitting me!) and went on his way.

I was stunned into inaction. I could have so easily have gotten the license plate number but I was too shaken up to think about it. To add insult to injury, the jeep took the next exit, and I briefly, dumbly looked the driver's way, to which he very triumphantly responded by giving me the finger.

When I had the opportunity, I pulled over at the next exit and checked the car over. No signs of any damage. I think what the person threw at the car was dirt. (Do these people keep a pile of dirt in the jeep just for this purpose?).

Anyway, let's just say it put a dark cloud over my entire weekend.

I did make sure to let the supervisor of the Fleet vehicle know first thing that Monday morning what happened, because I was worried that these two just might have been crazy enough to decide to call them (the number is right on the car), but I was reassured it would be okay.

I'm just thankful that that was the worst thing that happened. Luckily they didn't try to run my car off the road or shoot a gun at me.