Midwest drivers would rather risk crashing than letting another drive merge in front of them.
If Redditor /u/KILL_DOGG had any ill feelings towards Midwest drivers, this latest bonehead move he caught on his dashcam reportedly solidifies that feeling.
/u/KILL_DOG uploaded dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit earlier yesterday (Apr 28, 2023) showing a Ford F-150 towing a good-sized equipment trailer opt to drive into the breakdown lane and briefly off-road instead of merging behind him like any other rational driver would do.
The thread is linked here, with a copy of the video below. If the vid below is down, mirror here.
The exact location of the incident was on I-65 in Hebron, IN (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As OP’s video and Maps will show you, OP was in the middle lane of a three lane interstate near where three lanes merged down to two.
As the sign reads, “Left lane ends, merge right.”
Merging right means exactly that, signaling left and merging in front of or behind traffic next to you.
That Ford F-150 driver towing a trailer was clearly ways away behind OP in the left-most lane and had plenty of space to safely merge behind them.
With OP just passing a semi, it wasn’t safe for him to change lane then and there to accommodate the hard charging Ford F-150.
Instead of merging safely, that truck driver goes for the gap and plows straight forward into the hard shoulder.
He goes so much into the hard shoulder that his rear trailer tires literally go off-road, kicking up dirt!
To make matters worse, he pulled off his dangerous maneuver next to a semi.
I shudder to think what would happen if his trailer tires lost traction.
“I’m a truck driver based out of Elmhurst, IL; a northwest suburb of Chicago. So I drive through and or around Chicago a couple of times a week,” commented /u/Direct-Falcon-8946.
“I started to record a video of driving in the burbs to show how crazy the drivers and gave up. There were so many close calls and bad drivers not caring whose life they risked, I just shut it off. “
“And yep, those yellow lines of restricted areas; stay in lanes; school and construction zone; signs of no driving on the shoulder; yield to enter highway; red lights; stop signs, et al., don’t mean jack.”
It’s both surprising and not surprising that that Ford F-150 driver towing a trailer pulled that off.
While it’s best to avoid crazy drivers, in cases like this where you’re stuck between a hard shoulder and a semi in the other lane, my suggestion is to take your foot off the gas and to slow once a crazy driver flies by you.
It’s not smart to just brake, but it would behoove you to put as much distance between that driver and yourself.
And, if you feel emasculated merging behind you, get over yourself, seriously.
