I'm about an hour north and east, heavy Illinois influence. There is some good drivers over there, but it seems most of them only know throttle...

 

Speaking of heavy right feet....Does anyone know why the state of florida even bother posting speed limits? I drove there last year, was going 85 in a 70 an getting passed by almost everyone, including many motorhomes, semis, and of course police cruisers.....
Scott

 

well,fellro,I am in Quincy,IL ,about 5 minutes across the river is MO,so I can speak for the Illinois/Mo driver arguement,and I gotta say,there are bad drivers on both sides of the river

 

I know exactly what you are saying about the idiot drivers.
They are everywhere, in a big hurry to go nowhere..... except the funeral home.
I drove over the road for 13 years, all over the USA but mostly to the northeast cities from Denver. I hauled swinging meat so I could go feed the masses in the big cities.
I have seen almost every variation of every stupid trick you can name.
If people could only watch the big picture and see how much time they are costing themselves by their stupid tricks that they think is getting them home faster.

 

You're only 45 minute from me then, but you're very correct on the bad driver thing, just seems like the state line is the no speed limit sign to many Illinois license plates...
just seems kinda funny when I can be running right with them on the Illinois side, and when we get to the state line, they leave me in the dust.. I think the poor Mo and Ia drivers just do it all the time...

 

I just lost my 01 Taurus sunday. Let someone drive it with my daughter in it to a friends house. A car came from behind cut them off then slamed on the brakes in front of them. My car went into a ditch to miss the other car, hit a telephone pole and fince. The cars right front suspension is gone, the cars right rear tire just will touch the ground. The car is bent in the middle of the roof, right front door pushed back about 2 inches. 3 MORE payments left. No serious bumps thank god, but the car in front took off. I am just Sick.
Dave P.

 

Had a local caused my wife to flip her car in avoiding them, stopped right on the road, she took evasive to get out of hitting him and lost it going around hom. This was about 2 weeks ago, then i have my little incident and I am wondering how long it will be before I run out of luck. Seems the odds are against me with the number of stupid drivers out there. I have been lucky so far the only serious wrecks I have had were my own fault and by myself, noone else involved, but I am sure that there will be a day that I have one of these idiots wipe me out.

 

Bumper made out of a 12" I beam that weighs about 30 lbs. per foot stops a lot of that stupidity in front of you.

 

12" I BEAM, hehehehe I like.
Dave P.

 

My old 75 F250 4x4 had a 5 bar solid rear bumper built for a pulling truck. That truck got rear ended by a Geo Storm, wiped out the Storm, barely bent the bars and punched a hole in the license plate.

 

All very true. I am no big believer in speed limits, but I will say that these jackasses who feel that 75 is too slow and must dice through traffic at 90 are realy becoming a problem. As are the left lane ten under the limit types. I had an incident about a month ago where some nitwit sitting on the right shoulder of I-476 did a sideways smoking tires holeshot into the right of way without even looking!!! He cut off an SUV who swerved into the left lane and cut off a guy while trying to avoid a collision. This guy locks 'em up and does a 180 into the right lane. A VW New Beetle Convertible swerves into the left lane to avoid him, and comes to a stop sideways directly in front of me! I am all over the brakes, but I'm gonna T bone him, so I veer left to go around him on the left shoulder. I get a little crossed up and bounce off the concrete divider, mangling my bumper in the process. I come to a stop about 20' from the VeeDub, and a fishtailing Dodge Pickup with a landscaping trailer clips his car with the corner of the trailer and shoves him into the wall, then as he tries to recover, he rear ends me at about 10 M.P.H. Fortunately, an alignment and two junkyard bumpers were all that was needed to repair the damage (a tow chain and a tree trunk made the truck drivable untill that could be arranged). And these types of escapades are hardly unusual around here, as the moron population continues to grow at an alarming rate. BTW, I settled with the poor landscaper for $120 for the bumper, no insurance claim, since the parts came from a yard. I Forked over another $160 for the front bumper, and $85.00 for an alignment. And the idiot who started it all by being "Fast and Furious"? Got away, scott free. I may wind it out on an open road with nobody around (I'll go 80-90 or more at 2:00 am when The highway is so dead it looks like it was closed off to traffic), but anymore, in traffic, I find myself in the slow lane with the cruise set at 55 MPH, scanning the horizon for imbeciles.

 

i had to rebuild the front of the wife's taurus this spring because as i was pulling out to pass a slowing car (side road coming up on the right) the car i was going to pass turned left (with no signal) into a driveway. and i had just put in a new radeator the day before. was almost stopped when contact was made, but still needed a header panel, hood and another radeator. air bag never went off. the taurus is a '93 with only 45,000 miles. the car i hit was a loaner. 2 miles from my home. 2months after it happend you could still see my skid marks.

 

I have given up bothering to say or do anything about idiots who drive vehicles. They drive everything - I have seen cops behaving like idiots, paramedics doing the same, semi trucks, pickups, vans and cars all have idiots in charge of some of them. I drive over 100k per year, every year, and I see more idiots than most - they will always be like they are, so I expect it. Whenever I do anything, other than just go down a road, I look everywhere, for the idiot, who has no clue I am there. I often see vehicles swerve to the right behind me, as I stop at a stop sign. They see me stopped, just in time to avoid me. That is a daily occurence. I see semi trucks every week, trying to occupy the area I am still occupying - being cut off by a semi is very regular occurence - I have seen cop cars, in ditches, ambulances on their roofs, and firetrucks impaled on guard rails... Nothing, and nobody is immune from idiot driver syndome. I just hope I never degenerate to that condition, and if I do, I manage to be an idiot without hurting anyone else.

Rule of thumb. I expect idiots to be on the road with me. I have to play the second guessing game, or they will hit me. This is why I only drive Ford pickups, or larger. If they have to hit me, I hope to survive the ordeal.. (I have been run off the road by semi trucks, concrete mixers, RVers, and cars..) So far, I have managed to avoid all of the idiots I have come across: as I said, so far, but if I don't keep looking everywhere, one will get me.

 

Sounds like the rule of thumb I have used to so far have avoided many wreck: Expect them to be stupid and you will nerver be surprised. The driver that caused me to start this thread caught me off guard, came around that fast.

 

That truly sucks. I hope your daughter is ok.. may I respectfully suggest you don't let other people drive your vehicles - Nobody gets to drive mine, and I still have friends.