I consider myself to be a more or less reasonable person, no matter what my wife will tell you.
Which brings me to my topic: Other drivers, or why are people so selfish and stupid?
A few weeks ago, my wife and I had a date night and I drove her from our home in Festus to a restaurant in Hillsboro. The longest part of our route to the restaurant was on two-lane Hwy. A.
It was a Saturday evening and quite a few vehicles were on the road. Still, traffic rolled along fine, at or near the posted speed limit. I would guess five or six vehicles were in my line of sight ahead of me and there was a car behind me.
Out of the blue, the guy behind me decided traffic was not progressing to his liking and passed me and at least three other vehicles on the right shoulder. That’s right, this genius put the pedal to the metal to pass on the right, on the roadway’s shoulder. He then forced his way back into traffic, cutting off another driver.
Besides Mr. Impatient’s surpassing the speed limit, he put several vehicles and many people in danger with his asinine maneuver. He could have crashed into the car he cut off getting back on the road and caused a chain-reaction accident. He could have slid off the road on loose rock and slammed into a cliff. He could have run over one of the bicycle riders or joggers who on occasion travel along the shoulder of Hwy. A, especially on weekends. If someone had pulled over to the shoulder to change a tire, this guy easily could have caused a tragedy.
His actions infuriated me, but I was able to settle down – eventually – and have a nice dinner with my wife, no matter what she will tell you.
Still, I will never know why this man needed to get somewhere so quickly – the nearest hospital is in the other direction – but there can be no excuse for what he did. His selfish decision could have killed someone.
The most disturbing thing: It was not the worst display of driving I have ever witnessed.
I reserve that status to a couple of idiots in separate cars I came across in what I can only describe as a “dog fight” on I-270 in south St. Louis County late one Saturday night years ago.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down large gatherings, I used to host trivia events on weekend nights all around the St. Louis metropolitan area. The events typically finished around 11 or 11:30 p.m., so I would drive home near midnight.
On this particular Saturday night, traffic was pretty heavy. I was a few vehicles behind the two participants in this dangerous spectacle.
What these mental midgets would do was get in front of each other by a few feet and jam on their brakes, forcing the trailing car’s driver to slam on his brakes. How there was no collision, I will never know.
The two combatants did this multiple times and, try as I might, I could not get away from them. They kept rotating between stopping to a halt, followed by speeding and cutting through traffic to get at each other.
The entire episode may have lasted a few minutes, but it seemed like hours.
I’m sure other people can contribute harrowing stories about moronic driving they have witnessed.
I also recall a time I was driving north on I-55 to get to an assignment and witnessed what must have been a motorcycle stunt show in progress. A guy on the motorcycle at times stood the motorcycle on the rear wheel and performed other outrageous stunts at 60-plus mph.
When I got to my office and described what I’d seen, one of the reporters said there must have been someone behind the motorcyclist in a car filming his antics for social media. Swell.
While I did not feel I was in danger thats time, the motorcycle rider certainly distracted other drivers who could have run into him or each other. He is another who could have caused harm to others with his selfish display.
You may have noticed I have not mentioned a female driver in this screed. While I would think there are women who operate motor vehicles in an imprudent manner, I have yet to experience one who did anything remotely like the guys described above.
I believe driving is something most people think they are better at than they are. Yet, I think most try to obey the rules of the road or there would be even more collisions every day.
However, when you’ve witnessed some of the things I described, you wonder what goes through the heads of some of these drivers. If they don’t change their ways, it could be their steering wheels.
