Yay/Nay for close calls....

[Aquamentis12]

So I'm driving home after going to the grocery store. There's a truck in the meridian going left, and 2 open lanes where this old lady is waiting to leave Aldi's.... this person, starts pulling out, BEFORE THE TRUCK MOVES. So she begins BLOCKING BOTH LANES OF TRAFFIC!

Starting positions as I'm driving toward this area. The Vs and ^s indicate the direction of traffic for those lanes.
|_V_|_V_|_Truck_|_^_|_^_|Old lady
After I was able to come to a stop... Old lady had the road ENTIRELY blocked. I was about 6-8 feet away from hitting her door.
|_V_|_V_|_Truck_|Oldlady|

If I hadn't slammed on my brakes as HARD AS POSSIBLE, I WOULD'VE totally slammed RIGHT into her. I blasted my horn, but all she does is clear her ear, smiles and waves at me as she turns around me! People like that need their licenses REVOKED!!!!

I am so furious right now! >( Still shaking with how close that was!

[queen_hatshepset]

So glad that you are ok and that you didn't get in an accident and damage your vehicle. That is horrible. It is amazing how many incompetent drivers are out there. Where I live there are people who can't drive in the rain, fog, sunshine, or snow lol. It is so frustrating. 

[Aquamentis12]

7 hours ago, queen_hatshepset said:

So glad that you are ok and that you didn't get in an accident and damage your vehicle. That is horrible. It is amazing how many incompetent drivers are out there. Where I live there are people who can't drive in the rain, fog, sunshine, or snow lol. It is so frustrating. 

Thanks!
Yeah, bad drivers are a major pet-peeve of mine. Bad enough when drivers weave in and out of lanes, or turn without using their turn signals. This old lady, didn't even do that. I noticed her movement, and took my foot off the gas, if I hadn't, then I don't think I could've stopped in time when she DID pull out into the street, blocking all traffic on that side.
I mean, the turn signals are SO easy, and they let people know if you want to change lanes, or turn off. So they know if they need to slow down to accommodate you or whatever. It's polite, it's the law, and it saves lives.  Plus, you're less likely to get horn-blasted if you let them know you're about to make a certain move that involves turning or changing lanes.

Agreed, bad weather is one thing, but today was only a little overcast. If you can't drive in clear weather, then you shouldn't be on the road. I mean, it's a privilege, not a right. Though it IS necessary for MOST people to do errands or go to work. But it's still only a privilege.
Heh, sorry for venting again. I'm tired of bad drivers. They've been increasing more and more around here, even though tourist season is now over here.

[GillyTook]

You don't happen to live in FL, do you?  (edit, nope!  Just saw the location thing!) Because while I didn't have a near miss like that, I saw entirely too many people on the road who were driving like total jerks because they were trying to evacuate.  I work about 100 miles from home.  It usually takes me 2 1/2-3 hours to get home, but yesterday it took me 5 1/2.  Drivers weaving in and out, using breakdown lanes/off ramps to cut in front of other drivers, people turning into the road as their light turned, though they were blocking at least one lane behind them, and the only person I ended up honking at who decided to merge into the left lane when traffic started moving in the right, and opened up a huge gap before she could get all the way over.  I wasn't pleased. 

Closest call I got was some guy who waited until the last second to hit his brakes (I don't know why, since it was clear I was stopped as was a line of traffic waiting to go left at a light) because he apparently assumed traffic was clear?  But even the light ahead of us was red, so I have no idea why he thought he could just keep moving.  The guy behind HIM, though, was tailgaiting while hauling a utility trailer.  Looked up when I heard screeching to see him pulling partly into a turn lane and nearly jackknifing his trailer to try to stop in time.  I'm fairly certain that after that long drive when I was about 2 1/2 minutes of driving (after the light) from home, I'd have turned into the Hulk and destroyed something.  And, of course, because someone else hauling a trailer didn't want to wait, he drove up and stopped in the left hand lane so he could cut all the traffic that had been waiting already. 

Glad you got your car stopped in time!

[Mouseykins]

Drivers like that are one of the reasons I still don't have my drivers license.

I'm glad you're ok and didn't get into an accident.

We live in a rural area and one of the hiways we have to take to the city is busy and full of morons. It's a 2-lane with lots of commuter traffic. We're heading into the city and the speed limit is 100km/h. In the opposite lane is a big truck with several vehicles behind it. This red car decides to pull out around a car, obviously speeding and tries to pass the car and the big truck. We're coming up on this big truck and we have nowhere to go. The car has nowhere to go except to hit the brakes and pull in close behind the big truck. People like that must seriously have a death wish or something.

[Aquamentis12]

WOW! @GillyTook, that's crazy! It reminds me of a friend of mine who got rear-ended by a Semi truck a number of years ago. I'm pretty sure it was before she became a mom though. She drove a smaller car back then, a 2-door. So it was just her and her hubby at the time. Though that was down in a metropolitan area, I think near Milwaukee, if my rusty memory is recalling correctly.

@Mouseykins, that's one way to look at it. You can trust yourself on the road, but not others. Also, what happens if there is some sort of emergency? You might HAVE to drive somewhere. It's good experience to have and to do it right by having a license and knowing the rules of the road. That lady I almost hit maybe didn't even have a license anymore, it's possible. I heard on the news about a guy who'd been driving 50 years and only was just found out to not have a license!

I had ANOTHER close-call today.

Some jerk in a truck was waiting to turn into my lane near an overpass. There was NOT enough space between the car ahead of me and myself for him to safely do this, so I had to jut out to the right lane which tapers and ends a few hundred feet ahead. Just because I was mad, I gunned it, made sure I was safely past that jerk and then went into that lane before the right lane ended.

TWO close calls IN TWO DAYS if freakin' NUTS!

I live in a pretty rural town. Only slightly over 6,000 people. Today's incident was just out of town near the highway. The jerk from today could've waited literally 2 seconds for me to be past him because nobody was behind me at all.