Tailgaters ... whats wrong with them?!!??!!?

Tailgaters are the worst kind of drivers out there. Theyre the reasons accidents happen. When I first started driving I would be intimidated by them and speed up, but now I just drive the speed limit and let them get frustrated. Either way, however, theyre going to hit me if a situation ensues.

Today I was driving to get lunch for my brothers and there was a tailgater behind me. I keep driving at normal speed (25 zone) and then all of a sudden some idiot parked on the side of oncoming traffic tries to do a u-turn in front of me. I slam my breaks and nearly miss hiting his side of the car (He would have been seriously hurt.) The moron behind me has to swerve intto oncoming traffic to avoid hitting me, but luckily there was no on there. These two idiots could have caused a huge accident if I was influenced by the tailgater and if there were cars on the other side. Theyre lucky there was a red light down the street and cars werent coming from the other side.

Just had to vent
Additional Details
thanks for the responses guys

And to the two people trying to blame it on me ... there were no cars in front of me, I was the flow of traffic at 25. I hadn't entered the busy intersection yet.... a car from the other side (there are two lanes here) tried to pull a quick u-turn in front of me. Of course I had to slam my breaks. I can understand speeding/tailgating a little in commercial areas, highways, and freeways, but this was more like a residential area right before the commercial area.

oddball59

GRRR....we've had tailgaters and an accident caused by one. Fortunately we had a long boot on our car because the twit behind slammed into the back of us and completely took the boot out! We had two young children travel ling in the rear seats at the time....if we'd have had a smaller car, he'd would have driven into their backs!

Paul

SOME people follow too closely simply because they don't understand the physics of how long it takes to apply the brakes before stopping and all that. My wife is one of those. She will DEFINITELY wreck as a result of her habit.

Most people do it just to be A.H.'s trying to boss other people around. THOSE people are immature and need a 2X4 upside their head.

Rossonero NorCal SFECU

I don't like them either, but I become one when people drive slow in the fast lane. I have a bigger problem with fast lane blockers than I do with tailgaters honestly.

Nightrider

I must congratulate you for driving carefully. Tailgaters just do not think. They are probably on the cell or plain impatient.

Just pull over. Drive defensively. Let him go. You can drive at your pace. That is the smart thing to do.

Mia

it always seems to be young males, too. Too much testosterone i guess.

Indiana Jones

Tailgaters sux

Rhythm

Tailgaters piss me off as much as people that hold up traffic.

GET OUT OF THE WAY!
The tailgater is defiantly in the wrong, but congestion on roads causes accidents too.

The idea that "Why should I have to move? I'm going the speed limit!" will sound really stupid when your car is screwed up because you were trying to prove a point. And you'll definatly regret it if you end up paralyzed from the neck down. The road is no place to play games, QUIT PLAYING GAMES.

You make it sound like you are tailgated often, that leads me to believe that you are a problem on the road. People like you cause accidents... learn how to drive.

westhighland

These people have an undiagnoised mental illness. There is no reason for this behavior other than an unsigned court card from anger management. Just remember, not everyone has a happy , joyful, and serene life and they want to make sure that everyone knows about it .

Brian N

i feel you man, especially in traffic jams..those tailgaters do not have enough braking distance.........i get so freaked out sometimes.

Country Boy

I feel your venom from here. I don't like it either but our responsibility is everything in front of the passengers doors. I refuse to stab the brakes a some do because that makes two "bag heads" instead of one. I learned early on that I relish school zones because I drive the speed limit. If some meat head blows their horn I simply roll out of the throttle and go slower to piss em off. Ive always had the feeling that the old emergency brake trick would be appropriate but there's no seance in purposely causing a wreck.

clueless_nerd

They are just a subset of a larger group of people out there, namely ones that think that they rare the only ones that matter on this Earth.

A magazine I read once suggested a device that would help stop tailgating. It would sense how fast the car in front was traveling and modify the speed of the car appropriately.

The magazine said something approximately like: "This would save the lives of many tailgaters, a disadvantage that should be overlooked, considering the many worthy lives it would also save".

gramatron

if you are looking for a safe way to discourage tailgaters, flash your hazard lights. same effect as touching your brakes, but much, much safer. if there is more than one lane on the road, pull over to the right lane and let Mr. impatient go by. I'd rather have him cause trouble ahead of me where i can have time to react than have to trust his reflexes to avoid me. in Ontario, if you are in an accident, whether your fault or not, your rates go up. so here, it's probably not a good idea to go all mad max with your old p.o.s. truck and try to "get someone off the road" as a previous respondent has suggested.

zskip62

I like to downshift my manual transmission car,just to make sure they're paying attention.

RickinAlaska

Yeah, I know how you feel. Defensive driving is the only way to combat the problem. But you can report "drunk drivers" to the police if you get their plate numbers. That works. Keep in mind that kids today may be carrying guns now, so I don't think it's wise to aggitate them. Just get their plate numbers and tell the police "I think they may be drunk". That usually gets results, even if you don't know it. Good luck.

bugs280

They have brain damage and a death wish.

Grand pa

are you driving with the flow of traffic? You my be the cause of your problem You and every one else need to drive safely inspite of others. keep cool this may not what you wanted to hear.

csucdartgirl

Who hasn't been there done that?

Were you on your cell phone while this happened? Why did you have to slam on your brakes? Were you not paying attention?

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