it’s that attitude that results in people getting killed while neighbors listen and/or watch w/o picking up the phone.
i use a jawbone while driving so i was in compliance with the law while on the phone w/ the state police. although state police did not stop the vehicle in question (or not yet anyway), there was a good chance they might have been able to locate him. i had a witness w/ me in the vehicle to corroborate my testimony. there was no harm done by my 911 call and potentially it could have (and still might) result in some benefit to the driving public (or at least to the speed limit obeying driving public).
My husband always tells me to worry about whats in front of me, not behind me…but when I am hauling al iving, breathing animals in MY trailer…everything matters.
I’ve pressed the OnStar button before for some lady who cut me off and litteraly STOPPED in in the middle of our local HWY. She then picked up her pace only to stop AGAIN! I didn tknow if she was having some sort of medical emergancy herself…I couldnt pass…so I hit my panic button. GA state Patrol was there in no time to pull her over…luckily that section is patrolled regularly.
Heres the thing…if they are willing to tailagate YOU with a horse trailer, they are willing to tailgate anyone and need to be off the road. Its against the law, same as speeding. I pay my county taxes and my 911 charge on my cell phone…its there, use it. If they want to then pull me over and fine ME for calling 911, fine, Ill see them in court.
These are OUR roads…and I am entitled to a nice safe drive just as much as the next guy.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I have a small zippy car. I always drive behind my friends trailers to discourage tailgaters. I’ve also done it for random people getting tailgated. I back off enough so the trailer driver feels safe but zoom up if some idiot is about to cut in & tailgate. I always hope they understand what I’m doing instead of thinking of me as some crazy chick following the trailer in a little black sports car!
:yes: This is why I figure it is another horse person. I’ve seen cars doggedly stick with me, doing just what you describe while the traffic situation is hairy, and then they zoom off when it gets easier. I always wave my thanks, with all of my fingers sticking up. Semi drivers can be super nice. Or super scary, maybe depending on how tired or frustrated they are–I treat semis with caution until I know for sure.
[QUOTE=Chardavej;4361099]
If they’re tailgating ME it then becomes my business…[/QUOTE]
And how are you going to proactively change your driving to make tohe situation safer? Slowing down more, tapping your breaks, trying to be more annoying to the other driver is not making the situation safer. Driving forward at a safe speed for the road and conditions, properly signaling your turns, slowing down at even rates of speed for good reason, minding your own business and not getting a bug up your butt because someone else has a bugg up their butt is what will keep you safe.
Can you imagine if everyone in this whole country called 911 for every minor traffic violation they witnessed? Tailgating, running a stop sign or red light, turning without a signal, passing in a no passing zone, failing to yield to a pedestrian, etc. All of those things could cause an accident, yes, but really people, use some common sense.
[QUOTE=Renae;4361285]
A
Can you imagine if everyone in this whole country called 911 for every minor traffic violation they witnessed? Tailgating, running a stop sign or red light, turning without a signal, passing in a no passing zone, failing to yield to a pedestrian, etc. All of those things could cause an accident, yes, but really people, use some common sense.[/QUOTE]
for pete’s sake, i’m not some hysterical crybaby. i live in NJ. i obviously don’t spend my days calling 911 on people for traffic violations. in years of driving and hauling this was the first time i’ve ever done anything like that. i did it because the behavior was extremely dangerous and threatening to my horse. i’m hoping i will not encounter a db of that caliber ever again or at least any time soon.
Tailgaters have caused major accidents in the past with loss of live and considerable damage.
It just is plain old physics that a vehicle at x amount of mass (exceeding 1metric ton in all but a few cases), traveling at speed y needs the distance of z to come to a halt. No matter how good you drive, you can’t change that. And that is best case scenario, with non of the involved making a mistake, or issues in the material, like tires, road surface, etc.
tailgaters are also prone to cut it short during passing manouvers or using impossible to see spots to do so. It is NOT a cavalier thing!
In most places I drive it is considered illegal - because it is just so friggin dangerous. Add a cellphone in the mix…
and really, you only make a bout 5 minutes on a longer distance when you speed - besides it’s harder on the car, the speeding, breaking, speeding, etc…
I have had a few time were just by the grace of god our fenders didn’t make contact…
I hate tailgaters and if it had been me I’d have called the coppers too. :mad:
The only thing worse is folks who pass when you’re trying to turn. Happened to me twice - both turning into farm driveways.
Argh. :mad:
marta - a few years ago I saw a guy passing beer to a driver through the back window in the pickup truck - the beer was in the bed of the truck. I called the cops, gave license info and direction of travel - then followed the guy as best I could, staying on the phone with the 911 operator the whole time. Cops caught up with us and pulled the guy over - turned out he was DOS after several DWI convictions. So - good on you for calling the cops - you never know.
my friend (who was w/ me during this incident on sunday) told me one day she was driving and she saw a driver hitting a child in the back seat strapped into a car seat. just reaching back and elbowing and beating the kid blindly. but that was before cell phones and she couldn’t call the cops right away. she said she felt so helpless watching that kid get beaten like that…
marta - a few years ago I saw a guy passing beer to a driver through the back window in the pickup truck - the beer was in the bed of the truck. [/QUOTE]
Coming home from a school function, Friday supper time, busy main road in our city, looked beside us at the light and the driver of the pick-up was having a beer. :eek: I thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me but my DH said to call 911.
As we turned the corner, there was a construction tie-up with an officer directing traffic. We gave him the heads up about the pick-up and, sure enough, the fellow was pulled over.
Hey, Marta, you started this thread off ok, but I guess the whole scenario has got you so upset you have forgotten where the capital shift key is on your computer, aye??
Just kidding - don’t need an avalance about grammar police.
Every situation is different - I think you did the right thing. Messing with other road users you do not know can lead to worse confrontations, so myob is often the best way. With horses or without.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chardavej
“If they’re tailgating ME it then becomes my business…”
"And how are you going to proactively change your driving to make tohe situation safer? Slowing down more, tapping your breaks, trying to be more annoying to the other driver is not making the situation safer. Driving forward at a safe speed for the road and conditions, properly signaling your turns, slowing down at even rates of speed for good reason, minding your own business and not getting a bug up your butt because someone else has a bugg up their butt is what will keep you safe.
Can you imagine if everyone in this whole country called 911 for every minor traffic violation they witnessed? Tailgating, running a stop sign or red light, turning without a signal, passing in a no passing zone, failing to yield to a pedestrian, etc. All of those things could cause an accident, yes, but really people, use some common sense."
Agree… I have seen all types of cars, truck and trucks with trailer become angry hot head from tail gating people and YOU ONLY MAKE IT WORSE. You will never change those people and let them go around, pull over or whatever it takes get away from the pycho’s DO NOT BECOME ONE. OH and a FYI slamming breaks on is not legal either and if you slam on the breaks and they hit you some police will do it 50/50 as you are having the same amount of road rage or wrongness as the person tail gating. CHP officer (we had to sit for 50 min with horses on 101 as some idiot who was being tail gated slammed on his breaks and caused a pile up and a flip over in south bound lane, we were next truck and CHP officer was chatty. He said they both would be ticketed) said those accidents happen all the time and he can tell from marks on ground and but mostly from the ANGRY people because they always jump up and down that the guy behind them was tail gating and they kept breaking, windshield juicing them, placing hazard lights on or slowing down sharply… PEOPLE THAT IS called road rage and JUST as bad as the person behind you. I SIGH and pull over if it is a long curvy road when possible as it is not worth the risk.
When I read marta’s post, all I could think was “Hu? You don’t trailer much do you?”
If I was on the cell phone to 911 every time someone tailgated my trailer, I’d need to upgrade to the unlimited minutes plan.
I trailer somewhere to ride at least once a week, usually more. The emergency dispatchers have more to worry about than my horse’s ass being threatened by a sports car. Everytime you call 911, the call has to be logged and investigated. This takes time away from oh you know, people having heart attacks, people being robbed at gunpoint, that kind of thing. :rolleyes:
I go the speed limit, I watch the road and drivers in front of me, and whatever goes on behind me is out of my control. I watch all my mirrors, and I try to be aware of everything, but I can’t control the behavior of the idiots behind me. Only one time I have felt so uneasy that I had to turn on my emergency flashers and pull over to lose the teenage twit on a cell phone because she was all over the road, tailgating one minute, crossing the center line the next. She was WAY too much of a liability.
I’ve had more tailgaiters than I can count in the hundreds of times I’ve trailered my horses to and fro. Unfortunately, thats just what you have to deal with if you don’t want to toodle around in circles in your back yard.
Slowing down, hitting the brakes, or waving for the tailgaiter to go around you is dangerous and stupid. I saw a lady in a pickup truck with the bed loaded in hay driving 40 in a 55, waving people around her. She was getting increasingly frustrated when people wouldn’t pass (no passing zone!) She slowed down more and more and was frantically waving her arm for all of us to go around. About 4 cars decided to go for it, and just as they did, an oncoming car came around the curve and everyone came crunching to a halt to avoid a head on collision. Stupid stupid stupid. If that heifer had stayed on the gas and just kept plugging on at 40, we would have passed when we had the chance, in a clear section, in a passing zone. There was no reason for her to be so worried about the string of cars behind her. And if she was THAT worried, she should have pulled over and parked on the shoulder.
My mother taught me, and I learned way back in driver-ed, you worry more about what goes on in front of you than what goes on behind you. And if what goes on behind you gets to be too much of a liability, pull off to the side, or turn on the next road or exit.
Slowing down, tapping the brake, yelling out the window, calling 911??? NOT safe.
i don’t use caps on coth, except maybe to reference cother’s names. you must be one of the coth gramma nazi’s. i’m sorry if my posts make your eyes bleed. but i do use paragraphs
[QUOTE=Renae;4361285]
And how are you going to proactively change your driving to make tohe situation safer? Slowing down more, tapping your breaks, trying to be more annoying to the other driver is not making the situation safer.[/QUOTE]
If another driver is up my tailpipe, I’m slowing down. It’s not to annoy them, it’s to reduce the potential for a bad accident if they persist in tailgating. I tap my brakes because it flashes my brake lights; if they’re distracted and sort of crept up without realizing, this will hopefully attract their attention. Just an explanation, as you seem to feel that everyone who slows down is trying to pick a fight.
I hesitate to use 911, and actually have the local police dispatch lines on my cell so I can avoid it, but I think when people say someone abuses 911, they mean more that someone calls to complain that their neighbor is mowing their grass at midnight.
911 was placating you. Unless a accident was caused or a officer witnesses reckless driving they are not going to punish this driver. Obviously this person upset you but NOTHING will happen and you have wasted several days of your life on a topic that continues to anger you. YOU have your opinion and people like you who THINK IT AS THEIR GOD GIVEN RIGHT BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING THE SPEED LIMIT do not help matters. I DO not care if it is safe for me to move over, pull over or wave a ass*%^$ around I will because I want my horses, kids in the car and I safe. You start hitting the break lights and what not you have NO IDEA what kind of creep is behind you and believe you me I have seen these a-holes pull around after YOU (driver) HOLD YOUR GROUND and slam on the breaks in front of horse rigs. To me that is preventable. Sorry we can agree to disagree but I DO NOT deal with them, I let them go on their merry unhappy way.
"marta
JumpingBug
if 911 thought that my call did not qualify as an emergency i’m sure they would’ve said something instead of taking the time to take down the info, to confirm that i am willing to swear a complaint against the other driver, etc.
as far as pulling over, i’m going the speed limit. the road shortly opened up to two lanes. if i pulled over every time someone thought that going the speed limit on these roads is unacceptable, i’d spend more time on the shoulder than driving. i’m not the one to go slow in the left lane on the highway or to intentionally block the traffic if i can’t go the speed limit. in fact as i mentioned before, if i’m on a narrow windy road where i’m clearly going slower than the speed limit and i see cars behind me i will seek out an area where i can pull over enough to let them pass. this was not the situation here. that was a mannerless bully endangering the well being of my horse."
how do you know whether they were placating me or whether that is something that the New Jersey police (State Police in this case) take seriously? perhaps given the rise of road range incidents, the police are told to treat these types of complaint with utmost attention?
Semi drivers can be super nice. Or super scary, maybe depending on how tired or frustrated they are–I treat semis with caution until I know for sure.
