What to do about tail gaters?

Drive as you usually would and ignore these guys. Keep in mind that their insurance will pay for your rear bumper. Once they pass you, most will tail the next car just as badly, so try not to feel persecuted. The trick is not to look at them as they pass and try to give you the stink-eye. I like to lean over a bit and adjust my radio volume as they pass. If you show them they intimidated or angered you, they win (in a crazy dumb-nice person in a truck/SUV way).


edit: Was it a 60 zone?

 

If I get one of those here I let them pass and will even pull as close as I can to the edge of the road so that they get by. If they're crazy enough to drive 2 foot off your back end, then they're best in front of you where you can see what they're doing.

Actually had a driver drive really close up my back end about about a year ago. I pulled to the left to let them pass, which they did at high speed. About 2 miles later I came across them smashed up in the middle of the road. They'd hit someone head on and it was a mess. Took about 2 hours to cut her out of her car and she was in hospital for a six months. The poor woman she hit was in a real state as her car momentarily caught fire after impact whilst she was stuck in it. Not a pleasant thing to come across and I guess the girl in the rush has probably now learnt her lesson. Note to taxi drivers - times like this you're glad you have your fire extinguisher!

So lesson for today is - let them pass.

 

Tap your brake peddle quickly once and your tail lights will come on and the Loser behind you will jam on his brakes. This will keep him off your bumper.

 

And then you p*** him off big time, he overtakes you and then does the same to you but harder, or pulls along side and shoots you.

It's not a macho contest and not worth getting beaten up over or worse.

 

Good advice. Remember not everyone on the road is as nice or well adjusted as you and me! Sociopaths do drive and statistically 1 in 25 has those marked tendencies. Sometimes they express their coldness in the way they drive, and chronic tailgating and cutting drivers off or applying brakes when at high speed, is a marked symptom. Best rule is indeed drive defensively and don't fall prey to road rage.

In Denver a couple years ago, one was finally put away when he caused an accident with deaths by cutting a driver off and then applyed the brakes.

 

What was the speed limit?

 

Does it matter? Say he was doing 40 mph in a 60 mph zone, is that any reason to risk his and their own life by driving 2 foot away? If he was going too slow, then just pass him, blast your horn if you want but just get past.

Life's too short and seeing the aftermath of an accident involving one of these impatient drivers, it certainly affects your view on things.

 

Someone tailgating me is probably the most irritating thing that happens to me while driving. It's really hard not to do the old "tap the brake move". It's probably not the smartest thing to do, but it does make you feel better when they back off. That said, why 35mph? What was the speed limit and how fast were other cars (not the tailgater) going? In the interest of safety, you need to keep up with the flow of traffic - even it if means sacrificing a few MPGs.

 

You know, in an eat-sh*t-and-die kind of world I would agree, hit the brakes and scare him. Unfortunately as it was already mentioned, psychopaths drive and will not hesitate one second to do the same thing in a worse way or shoot you.

I have a wife and two little ones waiting for me at home. Most of the time my little ones are with me as I am the one that drops them off and picks them up from school. I don't want to put them at risk. It is just not worth it.

Luis

 

Funny no one mentioned this yet, but in situations like that, I speed up. If everyone else is 40-50, I would have driven 40 to at least not stand out like the "annoying Prius driver". I don't like to go too far below the speed of traffic around me. Or if I am driving slower than the speed of traffic, then I'll drive behind (with good following distance) a semi or minivan or some visibly slower car. No reason to give ppl excuse to road rage, even if they are wrong.

 

Doing half the speed limit is dangerous - you're a road hazard, plain and simple.

 

35 >> 30/2... what am I missing?

 

I don't know if this is still good advice, but some Sheriffs' Deputies whose softball team I sub'd on [some decades ago] told me that there are three ways to handle it.

First, if they're tailgating, but there's still room, drop your speed 1 mph .... wait 10 seconds, and drop it another. Keep doing until they pass. But if on a two-lane road where it's hard to pass, pull over to the shoulder instead.

Second, if they're right on your bumper, first accelerate hard enough to put a good gap between you & t'gater, and then slow down considerably so that when they close on you you're going slower than before. But again, if on a two-lane road where it's hard to pass, pull over to the shoulder instead.

Third, if afraid to do those, if there's a car in front of you somewhere, accelerate and pass it if you can. Then move over in front of that car -- leaving room, but not enough for another car to move in.

I like the kinda tools James Bond had to deal with those kinds of situations. Oil slicks. Metal spikes. Chemical clouds. And, it's jail free ... when the jury finds out what kind of driver it was, can't convict you because no intelligent life was lost.

The deputies did say that they sometimes overlooked someone at excessive speed, but they'd pull over every tailgater they saw. Back then, without all of today's computer tie-ins, they had a printed sheet on which the license plates of "troublesome" drivers were noted. The deputies reported the worst of the idiots they'd seen or stopped. The list was so that the next time they were seen, the deputy seeing a car on the list would look for any reason to pull them over & give another ticket.

Now, at least in a few areas, the primary task for police officers is to issue tickets to generate revenue however much it's denied. The two I've talked to about that over the last couple of years say they hate that being their job. One said that on occasion he'd deliberately transpose numbers on the ticket or something, so that he got credit for a stop & ticket, but the alert driver could get it dismissed.

Oh yeah. And when I was with them at softball games, and we went out afterwards to celebrate [drinking age in NY state then was 18], I've never seen faster drivers than a few of them. There was one with a Trans Am .......

 

Two problems here: You're hurting fuel economy trying to stay within the green zone climbing a hill and you're creating a hazard for yourself and others when everyone else is flying past you at 40-50 mph.

Solutions are to use the ICE when it's most efficient to do so and drive at the flow of traffic.

 

If I find a safe and convenient place, I'll pull over and let the person pass me.

 

If you're doing the speed limit or a bit more, just tune them out - completely.
If there's a place where they can pass safely, give them the opportunity to do so.
If you want to compare penis size, do it in the shower (and bring something bigger than a midsize).

As far as insurance goes, it works like this:
The person in back is 99-100% at fault - the insurance companies won't even try to dispute this.
They will, however, try to get off as cheaply as possible... Best path is to negotiate with them, escalate to a manager (or regional manager) when needed, and remind them of all the little costs they will have to pick up if you can't work something out with them (avoid saying "get a lawyer").

I was rear-ended once and the frame was bent ever so slightly (rear door was rubbing a little) - they wanted to repair (since the car wasn't that old), but I forced them to cover the loss in value also (which they did by totalling it instead). They never at any time disputed that their driver was entirely at fault, but they were b*stards about the money - it wasn't until I cited time lost from work, rental car costs, and my intention to escalate to the regional manager, that they finally caved. I wasn't asking for any huge amount, and probably could have done slightly better financially if I had gotten a lawyer, but it would have been WAY more hassle - that's something else to bear in mind when you're thinking about playing tag with someone on the highway.