I doubt it was intentional.
Most likely a cell phone/texting issue.
It is madness.
My wife and I were driving south on 495 in Massachusetts yesterday just north of the Lowell Connector at about 11:00 AM.
I was in the left hand lane doing about 75 mph in heavy traffic with a lot of tractor trailers. (The speed limit is 65 MPH IIRc, but nobody does it through there when there isn’t bumper to bumper traffic...doing 65 is actually unsafe)
When there are a lot of tractor trailers, I prefer to drive in the left hand lane because they aren’t allowed in the left lane in Massachusets.
When I have to pass a truck in the lane to the right of the left lane, I watch and wait until there is enough room behind the car in front of me to clear the truck, then I accellerate and pass the truck, watching the front wheels of the truck carefully for any indication it might come into our lane. While I am doing this, I also hover my hand over the horn...just in case.
Habit.
As we passed, we were about half way past the truck when the front of the truck began to cross the line and came about two feet into my lane and kept coming. There is no real breakdown lane on the left there, probably about 1/3 the width of a normal breakdown lane with a rumble strip to the left of the white road stripe with jersey barriers just a few feet to the left of that rumble strip.
No place to go.
I jerked the car over as far as I could, jacked on the brakes, went over the rumble strip as my side mirror was less than a foot from the Jersey Barriers, my hand came down firmly on the horn and stayed there as my wife shrieked at the top of her lungs “OH MY GOD!”
The truck jerked back into its own lane, and we drove the rest of the way home with my white-knuckled wife clutching the door and the seat.
I don’t know why that truck came over, but...could have been sleepy. Could have been texting. Could have been doing some paper notation or map adjustment, I don’t know.
But that is all it takes on the road these days, is a second or two to become a grease spot on a jersey barrier because someone took their eyes off the road.
That’s all it takes. And for an inexperienced driver towing a trailer...even less.
It is damned dangerous on the roads these days. Damned dangerous.
I watch truckers wobbling over the lines and rumble strips all the time.
Could be the monotony of driving in the middle of nowhere mountain infested western MD.
I either stay way back or blast around them so I don’t end up in their debris field.
Despite the alleged zero tolerance laws in MD, *everyone* is on their damn phones.
Followed a chick up RT 40 Friday, doing 38mph in a 50 zone.
She was “driving slow” so her texting while driving would be ‘safer’.
Never a cop around when you need one.
Texting and driving is worse than DUI, IMHO.
I see it everyday in Nashua.
I am glad you made it through the Lowell Connector alive.
I am lucky that I only drive into Mass a few times a year.
I live less than 15 miles away. With the exception of going to a Red Sox game or Logan. I stay out.
See post #35.
Eye witnesses speaking up.
Truckers have very large blind spots, and that is no shit.
This guy in the above referred to accident did not have a blind spot in front of his vehicle.
He was simply occupied elsewhere, if we give benefit of the doubt.