Rush Hour Road Rage

by Marz Waggener
(Long Beach, CA)

One evening I was driving home after work, sitting in the "parking lot" that was supposed to be a freeway, I-85 North from Atlanta. Traffic inched forward like the opening scene from "Office Space," in which an old man on a walker shuffled along faster than traffic. This was very normal for traffic leaving Atlanta and driving North towards the suburbs.

As we got farther along, I noticed a car in the fast lane that was lagging behind, several cars in front of me. I didn't pay much attention, assuming the driver just wasn't paying close attention and didn't realize that traffic speed had finally picked up. But suddenly the driver of a car in the fast lane (who now had a long, empty stretch of road in front of him) pressed his accelerator to the floor, picked up speed, and deliberately side swiped a car a bit ahead of him in the neighboring lane.

The driver of the side swiped car stopped, bewildered. He had probably done nothing wrong, perhaps made a normal lane change at a reasonable speed in front of the other driver, but for some reason the other driver got upset and decided to take revenge.

I have never seen a more immature driver in my life - over what was most likely an unintentional offense, he risked damage to his vehicle, insurance claims, and the possibility of criminal charges if he was caught as a hit-and-run driver with malicious intent. To this day it reminds me both to be careful while driving, because there's a lot of immature and stupid drivers on the road, and to relax a little bit and not get upset at other drivers.