Road rage of a different sort

"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
08/13/2018 at 15:00 • Filed to: None

This Wikimedia photo is pretty close to where my weird night took place.

I was reading the piece about the road rage incident in California...

That the second driver died after wandering back into traffic reminded me of one of the weirdest nights of my life, and I decided I’d share with y’all. Bit of a brain dump, pardon me for the run-on qualities.

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I was 17, just graduated from high school, leaving work at a warehouse on the far side of town from where I lived, driving across town on a usually-busy interstate, now utterly quiet because it was around 2am.

I was pretty tired, wasn’t thinking clearly, when suddenly I noticed a woman running towards me, waving her purse, trying to get my attention. On the highway. While I was driving somewhere around 60mph.

(My first thought was that, much like the Nation of Islam men standing on street corners with flowers and newspapers, she wanted money . Like I said, I was tired.)

Needless to say I zoomed past her before I could really react, but I saw a man chasing her, and a car stopped on the margin.

A car a short distance in front of me tapped its brakes, but when the driver saw me do a U-turn he/she just kept going. Smart move, but I wish they’d pulled off somewhere to call the police. (1988, practically no one had mobile phones.)

Pretty much the same car I was driving at the time. I don’t miss my Citation even a little bit.

I drove back to where he had her pinned against the tall concrete barrier in the median. Stopped my car, got out (then remembered I had my paycheck in my shirt pocket and went back to hide it in the glove compartment...weird the things we remember after 30 years).

They were screaming at each other, but I somehow managed to get her back to my car. He wasn’t willing to just let her go, though, and prevented me from closing the door.

Thankfully, around this time a semi (USPS, thanks whoever you were) pulled over and, I assume, used his CB to notify the police. A short time later law enforcement showed up. Probably 20 minutes up to that point of me trying to get out of the situation, but I honestly have no idea. Stressful and harried time.

The first question the police had, of course, is whose car was pointed the wrong way on the interstate. Thankfully that wasn’t their major concern, but it struck me at the time as surreal.

Anyway, about 5 police cars on both sides of the highway showed up (slow night) and while they were talking to the three of us, others were chatting back and forth. I distinctly remember someone sitting on the median, talking down to our side (the lanes in the other direction were somewhat elevated) and asking another officer about his kids.

Apparently she was a hooker trying to get away from him that night, and he was married, and I’d sure like to know how it all played out in the end, but I never found out. Every few years I remember the incident and think I should call the police and inquire.

Lessons learned? I suppose always have a cell phone, and as my mother said when I finally had let enough time lapse that I could tell her about it, always be cognizant of the odds of someone downtown in large city carrying a weapon.

DISCUSSION (6)

ttyymmnn > Just Jeepin'
08/13/2018 at 15:05

I’m guessing it played out with a divorce.

Just Jeepin' > ttyymmnn
08/13/2018 at 15:11

You’d think so, but women, even moreso then, put up with a lot in exchange for the hope of financial stability.

Just Jeepin' > Just Jeepin'
08/13/2018 at 15:12

Odd, the kinja link vanished between draft and publishing, but https://oppositelock.kinja.com/a-little-bit-of-road-rage-schadenfreude-1828306593 is the article I was referring to.

Just Jeepin' > Just Jeepin'
08/13/2018 at 15:18

And now it appears in the article again. Dunno. Weird.

Cash Rewards > Just Jeepin'
08/13/2018 at 15:37

What your mom said reminded me of a similar conversation with my wife once, after I chased after some drunk who hit my car. I had jumped out of bed and sprinted out the door in just my undies and left her, pregnant, with an infant, to chase after someone in the middle of the night. She was, understandably, pissed. "What if they had a gun?" (I live in Virginia, it's a fair question). I told it was just some drunk 50yo woman. "Well, you didn't know that when you started running out of the house in your boxers, did you?" Well, no, but....

Just Jeepin' > Cash Rewards
08/13/2018 at 15:42

There’s a relatively famous line that I can only paraphrase at the moment, something to the effect of “Nothing good ever happens after midnight ”.