A drama at 105 feet per second; We were towing to a race last Saturday. Doing 70 MPH, Southbound I-94 Wisconsin in my Chevy Uplander van with my racecar trailer behind. (sorry, no dashcam video)
10 Seconds before; See brake light in traffic ahead and notice dark car sitting in crossover seen on the left. Assume it is state patrol.
8 Seconds before; See that it is a small Hyundai who is starting to pull out. I am looking with great interest hoping he is staying in the left lane. Unfortunately in the next three seconds he casually merges to the right lane and shows little interest in accelerating.
5 seconds before; I hit the brakes hard. However it has little effect as this is a 8000+ pound rig doing 70 mph.
1 1/2 seconds before; I adopt Plan B and change lanes to shoulder.
0 seconds; Pass him on the right horn blaring, 25 mph faster than him.
+1 1/2 seconds after; I have cleared him and merge back onto right lane, I guess no harm no foul.
The Hyundai gets off at the second Wisconsin Dells exit. The driver had a handicapped sign off his front mirror so I could assume he/she was elderly. This may not be true though as I don’t know how many elderly people drive small Elantras.....
I considered getting off, following him and calling the cops. But we were on a schedule and also sometimes stupid people carry guns so I kept on rolling. Besides, both of us were kind of stunned and we didn’t need any more drama that day.
I am glad the pass on the right worked as I do not want to contemplate the consequences of hitting a car at 25 mph closing speed with a van having a full load of tools, a full tank of gas, and a 4000 pound pusher behind me.
My takaways are;
- always be mentally prepared
- always ask yourself what is the other guy doing
- if you can make the move, do it
We will let karma take care of the other guy.