Fasten your seatbelts - this will be a bumpy ride

Rant ahead:

Nearly 24 hours later and I'm still outraged:
I'm a motorist heading on Route 78 west in New Jersey, near the 287 merge at Bridgewater, Wed., Nov. 19 at about 5:30 p.m.: A truck does one of the most dangerous things it can: It gets right behind me and there's no way I can speed up or get away from it - because we're IN RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC, OK? So where was he gonna go anyway??

While I'm keeping a safe distance from the vehicle up ahead, maybe 1 1/2 car lengths, this idiot in his 18-wheeler wants to ram his front end up my trunk - inches, I mean he's inches from my rear bumper. At 70 mph.

Why on earth would anyone terrorize a motorist like that? What would have happened to me if I had to hit the brakes? I would have been under his wheels.

If it had been daylight, I would have gotten the company name and license plate number and reported that driver.

As it happened I eventually was able to get away from him by getting into the left lane and I left him behind to terrorize the next driver, which he did, according to my rear view mirror.

We had a big - and fatal - accident on Route 287 south years ago from someone who hit the brakes on the highway, whose SUV was consequently destroyed by the tractor trailer traveling too close behind.

You guys, why do you do that? Why? I understand the need to maintain speed, but you're kidding me, right? In rush hour traffic?

I've traveled Route 78 for years so I'm accustomed to the occasional idiocy from a tractor trailer driver. And to be fair, there's been many more kind and courteous truck drivers who have backed off once they realized they were following too close.

But there are many neophytes on the roads and getting up that close behind a frightened driver invites an accident.

 

Thanks all. As I said, there's been many more times than not that the drivers will back off when they' see they've gotten too close.

We were in rush hour traffic, but we weren't in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam. In other words the highway was tight with cars, but all doing around 70 mph, which was why this was so frightening. With him right behind me and a line of cars in front of me (I had to either stay in the middle or left lane because the highway veers left at the Route 287 merge) it was #### scary.

I guess my message is: don't assume that the driver in front can maintain his/her cool when you cut in tight between vehicles and tailgate right behind them. It's one thing for a car to do it - quite another for a big truck. Have some sense of what the driver in front sees (your big front end) from the rear view mirror. It's scary.

But to be fair, again, having driven 78 for nearly 30 years, I have found truckers to be generally courteous.