Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Interesting ride in this morning. . . .


Going down 44 I got to the Middleboro rotoray. . . now for those of you not in New England you may not have run into one of these. . . the rotary or round about is a mess that I have only really seen in the northeast.

This one has five roads that dump into the circle, and we take our turn getting on it to go to the other side. . 

Anyway as I was saying.  I am sitting there and was about to go when the car in the rotary sped up (God forbid someone else gets ahead of him) so I had to stop, the guy in the rotary has right of way here.  Then traffic would not let me in for a bit.  I am not cutting off a semi thank you very much. . .  I wait a bit longer and then get a bump from the back. . . the guy behind me gave a bit of a push.  Not a hard bump and I could tell there was little or no damage without even looking.  I have been bumped here before and we stopped to look things over no issue but something did not feel right this time. 

Now not knowing if it was on purpose or not, and one to go with my gut feeling which sensed problems I let it go.  I got in the rotary and then kept going.  The guy who bumped me followed me all the way to work.  Now this is about three - four miles so along the way I am thinking “what the heck to I do if he follows into the parking lot?  What do I have on me???”  (answer, a knife and a tac pen, not too much. . . going to work after all which limits my options here)

Luckily (I think) he did not follow me into the lot.  Not wanting problems I did call the Middleboro cops and report it as a bump and no damage beyond a bit of paint.  Nothing to get upset over and they now have my phone number if needed.  I didn’t want to get accused of leaving the scene or such you never know in MA. . .
To me this was worth letting go.  Was it road rage?  I don’t know.  But I do know my gut said don’t chance this one.  This is the first time I have been in a fender bender or such and not stopped.  This is also the first time my gut said “don’t stop, trouble”.  When you commute the distances I have for so many years you get a bump or two on the car.  I hope I read this wrong, and the guy in the dark SUV was trying to do the right thing but who knows.

Maybe I am a chicken, but to me it was better to avoid things this time.  It just is not worth getting into it over a bit of scratched paint. 

3 comments:

JD said...

Oh and I will note (like you can't tell from the blog) that I am a carry permit holder. . . you know the kind of person that the anti gun folks tell you are out looking for trouble or to start something. . . Ya, not so much folks. I don't go looking for trouble and actively avoid it whenever I can. . . so far so good in my book.

What would you have done?

Anonymous said...

I would have went to work or if it was on the way a police station to pull over. Somewhere where you are not alone. Sounds like the guy was just an angry asshole.

That said rotaries are starting to sprout up in the Midwest like weeds. They are roundabouts there.

JD said...

ya, hindsight being 20/20 I could have stopped at one of the gas stations on the way, they are busy so I would not be on my own. But I have been driving a while, not my first bump so you know how you get the feel when they bump you that it was not much or did any real damage. . . Just something gut wise said keep moving. . .