What happened to these people?

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
02/28/2019 at 22:57 • Filed to: PANIC! AT THE AVENUE.

This afternoon I made a mistake as I drove home.

I got distracted with something and didn’t realize the grey Jetta in front of me had made a panic stop, so I had to panic stop and I came so close to their bumper the parking sensors triggered.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but shouldn’t have, as in my rear view mirror I saw a black Jeep Grand Cherokee braking as fast as it could: I thought I was done for.

But now, again, the parking sensors triggered and the damn thing was at best half a foot from my bumper. The jeep braked so hard that the brake squat was not only visible, but it made the entire SUV look like a kiddy cradle... if that makes any sense.

I was very embarrased I had made the GC driver go through that, I had a WK2 and those things aren’t great at stopping, so further on the road I stopped next to him and I shouted “Sir!, I’m sorry!”

He quickly raised his window, looked down at me, and either gave me both fingers or just made a fist, I couldn’t tell cus his glass was tinted.

He then drove away from me as fast as the Jeep could handle...

It was very strange. Did the guy think I was gonna mug him?

DISCUSSION (9)

Merfthemadmauler > Spanfeller is a twat
03/01/2019 at 00:40

You took the high road with an apology. I commend you.

Spanfeller is a twat > Merfthemadmauler
03/01/2019 at 01:01

I try to be curteous, but it's so hard to convey a non-aggresive message while inside a car... It's something I struggle with everyday since in this city when you communicate with other vehicles it's mostly to complain.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Spanfeller is a twat
03/01/2019 at 05:50

should have caused an accident

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Spanfeller is a twat
03/01/2019 at 07:21

I usually take a little “duck down/hand wave” as “hey I’m sorry I was an idiot”.

I usually get the bird from the person who was being an idiot though. Still haven’t figured out how that works....

ateamfan42 > Spanfeller is a twat
03/01/2019 at 08:17

A few years ago, I had someone pull out right in front of me from a side business. The usual slamming of brakes and sounding of horn ensued. Fortunately, no contact took place, and we proceeded up the road a short ways to a red light.

Still pissed, I was then shocked to see the driver ahead get out of his car and walk back toward mine. I was expecting him to launch into a tirade of anger at me for his screw up (as some assholes are known to do), but was extremely surprised when instead he offered a heartfelt apology for not paying attention and expressed his appreciation that no one got hurt.

I’ll tell you, it is hard to stay angry at someone in that situation. He messed up, knew it, and owned it. I accepted his apology, and we went on our separate ways.

If more people could take responsibility for their mistakes, this world would be a much nicer place.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Spanfeller is a twat
03/01/2019 at 10:01

I think that’s the problem. He may have not been listening/not clearly heard what exactly you said and took it for aggression . We’ve got lots of fairly universal ways to communicate where to stick it to other folks behind the wheel. U nfortunately, we don’t seem to have lots of universal ways to signal apologies behind the wheel.

Spanfeller is a twat > ateamfan42
03/01/2019 at 10:31

I mean, that sounds like a situation that looked escalating but actually descalated...But yeah, if there was an easier way to apologies It'd be nice.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Spanfeller is a twat
03/01/2019 at 13:55

Yesterday morning I had a similar experience... a traffic light was going to turn yellow.

What does the person in front of me do?

Initially they acted like they were going through, but then the idiot changed their mind and decided to slam on their brakes instead... which caught me by surprise and forced me to panic-stop.

And thankfully I did manage to stop with only about 1 meter between my bumper and the other person’s bumper.

ateamfan42 > Spanfeller is a twat
03/01/2019 at 14:49

I mean, that sounds like a situation that looked escalating but actually descalated...

Exactly. I’ve experienced so many situations where someone does something stupid, gets honked at, and then becomes completely unhinged (or at least extremely angry) because their mistake was called out. This guy was certainly outside the usual, and that was refreshing.

We are all flawed humans, and we all make mistakes. We should aspire to learn from them and become better than we were, not deny our flaws and insist everyone else is to blame.