I was driving home from work on Tuesday and traffic was a bit congested, but we were all moving at about 60MPH. I always leave a big gap in front of me (the 5 second rule) in case traffic comes to a quick stop.

There was a 3rd gen 4Runner directly behind me who was so close that I could not see his front bumper. Behind him was a silver honda with aftermarket tail-lights and some other mods to make it look sporty. I'm guessing that the 4runner was tailgating me because the honda was tailgating him. However, I'm going the speed of traffic, and going any faster will kill the room between me and the car ahead of me.


I'm in the #1 lane, and the honda merges into the #2 lane, then zips ahead of the 4runner behind me, and comes parallel to me.

There is a green car in the #2 lane that is no more than a half car length ahead of me. The honda comes right up on the rear bumper of the green car, and I think to myself... "Is this guy actually going to try and go between me and the green car?"

Sure enough, the ******* makes his move, and cuts into my lane directly ahead of me. His rear driver side fender is right where my front passenger side corner is. He hasn't even passed me, and he's moving into my lane.

To avoid a collision, I have to cut to the left. I did not slam on the breaks because the 4runner was directly on my tail (though he had backed off a bit now that the honda passed him).

I was very careful not to over-correct with the motions, but heading to the left was sending me directly toward the center divider, so I turned the wheel back to the right. Now, I'm heading toward the #2 lane. My 4runner takes on a pendulum motion, and I end up spinning 180 in the fast lane, kissing off the center divider, and facing the car behind me as I come screeching to a stop.

I was VERY surprised that no one hit me. I have no clue if the ******* in the honda completed his lane change or not. No one stopped to give a witness account. The guy in the Honda had to have seen me spin out and hit the median, but he just kept going.

What's wrong with people these days? It really makes me lose faith in humanity when people can be so cruel, then just drive away from the scene without even checking.

Luckily, the damage is minor because I did a good job controlling the vehicle. By the time I hit the median, I was not going very fast. I have some rub marks on the front passenger side bumper, but the fog lamps and headlamps are all intact. The fender is a bit dented, but not from contact with the cement wall. The bumper pushed up into it, and pushed it back a bit.

My insurance says I'm not responsible for the incident so it won't count against me, but I am still out the deductible for the repair.

Wow, glad to hear you're okay, that's obviously the most important thing. I'm surprised the dude in the little Honda tried to squeeze ahead of you - I've been in similar situations and they usually seem intimidated by the size of my GX and don't try it - but some of them are such idiots nothing surprises me these days. When I see a situation like that developing I usually make an effort to either back off and give them plenty of room or speed up and totally close the door on them so as not to give them any temptation at all to squeeze in.

I almost spun out in my Jeep last Thursday. I was driving to work on the interstate in the fast lane taking a long sweeping right hander going about 60. It was in the middle of Tropical Storm Fay so it was a hard steady rain but traffic was proceeding at a nice steady pace. I thought I was a safe distance behind the SUV in front of me but all of a sudden the dude swerves to the right and I now see a couple of broken down / wrecked cars on the left shoulder that I hadn't seen before because of the gradual right curve I was on. The center barrier was so close to the lane their cars were sticking halfway into my lane and I had to do an emergency quick jig to the right and felt my ass end sliding to the left but fortunately I think the VSC system kicked in and I was able to steer around the obstacle and stay in control. Thought for sure I was a goner for a few seconds.

I am sorry to hear that and glad you are ok. Things like that happen allot in NJ. We are known to be the state with the most aggressive and worst drivers. A killer combination. That

Sorry to hear about your tramatic incidence.

Glad to hear you're okay.

I would have just hit him, he deserves it.

bottom line, good that nothing worse happened. i know, you feel frustrated that somebody put your life in danger just like that, you having nothing to say about it. idiots are everywhere.
i remember when somebody cut off in front of my wife's car and slammed the brakes because the guy in front of him hit the brakes. everything on a rainy day, and on a bridge with a very slippery pavement. my wife's car just slid into the bumper of the guy's car, barely touched him. when she got off the car, she realized that was a 5 car accident in front of her, right when the idiot decided to cut her off. when we reported the accident to the insurance company, we've found out that the guy said that my wife hit him so hard from behind, that pushed him into the car in front of him, creating the accident. nothing about cutting her off or anything. our bumper was intact, his few scratches. the estimator of the accident that worked for the insurance company, determined that because we didn't have any damage to the bumper, the impact could not have been so powerful to push the other car into an accident. to make the long story short, we ended up paying for the guy's bumper, few hundred $$.

Sounds like good, level headed driving on your part saved the day. I am glad to hear your ok and the damage is minor.

Sorry to hear about your accident...did VSC help at all?

I drive tractor-trailers and large straight trucks for a living, and I have had people (yes, some even in Hondas) try that shiat to me. Fortunately, I have never hit anyone or spun out -- Knock on wood! - but some moronic drivers out there do not realize how close they come to meeting their maker.

The most dangerous place in the USA is often Interstate 95. Truckers sometimes refer to the DC/MD/VA area of that road as the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" on the CB.


Be careful out there and arrive home safely.

I second that, interstate 95 in that area is dangerous. Also, they split allot. Before I knew it, I was on a different highway lol. But accidents are common in that area. Seen it many time during my travel to DC and virginia

It seemed to help. I think that's what kept me from hitting the center divide at full speed, or shooting across traffic into the other lanes. As much as I tried to control it, the 4runner started taking on a pendulum like motion that ended up spinning me. I could definitely hear it working by breaking wheels, and beeping. That's pretty much when I knew I was in trouble.

If this was a world with no consequences, I would have loved to just tap his rear left fender like on an episde of cops and spin him across the freeway like a top.

Hopefully that idiot learned that there are consequences to his actions, and will be a better driver because of it. Probably not, but one can hope.

Sorry hear about the accident. Glad you're ok and your 4Runner only sustained minor damage.

People can be dumb.

A guy died on 65N not long ago out of Indy leaving the brickyard pulling the same crap stunt. Except it cut it too close to a semi who couldn't swerve out of the way and basically PITT manouvered himself. Of course he'd been drinking AND wasn't wearing his seatbelt and rolled his SUV a few times. His girlfriend apparently spent one day in the hospital and was fine (other than her boyfriend dying).

Good job keeping everyone alive. Hindsight's 20/20, but next time I'd either drop back and let the jerk through, or close up the space as soon as you see someone pulling that crap. I don't mind people passing and merging in front of me, but when it's close (and that one sounded damn close) it's just careless and inconsiderate of anyone elses life. You could have had several kids in the 4R... arrrggg.

Sorry to hear what happened to you. It definitely could have resulted in a much worse situation. Metal can always be fixed.

Glad you are ok .