hit (and run)

Wow.

I am still trying to process what I just saw. I was pulled up at an intersection, waiting my turn… to turn… when two cars turned from the merge lane, one behind the other. Apparently the guy in the rear vehicle wasn’t pleased with the slow turn of the guy in front of him, so he nudged his vehicle against the bumper of the guy ahead.

As the lead car braked to stop, and probably to gather insurance information (and to curse out the other guy for the action), the guy hit his car once again, but this time harder. The guy in the lead vehicle jumped out of his car, irate beyond belief, ready to lay into the impatient fool who had hit him (now) twice.

As soon as he arrived at the other car’s driver’s side window the other car’s driver backed up quickly and swerved around the stopped vehicle, the first car’s driver chasing him down, to no avail. By the time he had gotten back into his own vehicle, the other car was three blocks down, burning rubber.

I can still hear the swears from the man as he got back into his own car, as I turned to continue on my way.

Why are people like this?

I’m sure you’ve seen it before–you’re driving too slow for the car behind you, so he rides you closely until you either pull over, pick up the pace, or he passes you (with or without flipping you the bird). But I’ve never been hit from behind by such a motorist. I think the second guy in this situation was legitimately upset at the slow pace of the car in front of him, that he hit the gas at the wrong time, that he accidentally hit the other car… the first time.

That’s when it was like a soap opera. In for a penny, in for a pound it seemed at that point. He deliberately waited for the other man to turn off his vehicle and open his door, to exchange information (or maybe he would have gotten punched, with how irate the other driver was), then hit the car again, harder. What kind of person does this?

I hope someone got the license plate number.