Monday, February 13, 2012

Ambulance chaser – Don’t be that guy.

Last night, I’m sitting on the Cross Bronx which is at a standstill. I assume there’s an accident up ahead, even tough the radio and my GPS have no info. About a quarter mile back, I see an ambulance light up the cherries in my rearview. I’m in the left lane (of course), and is squeezing by on the narrow shoulder. Since its bumper-to-bumper as only the Cross Bronx can do, there isn’t room for me or any other car to fully move over for the ambulance, we can just straddle the middle lane with enough room to let the ambulance by on the tiny shoulder. This is when it happens.

Whoosh. The ambulance sails by. And then before I even have time to blink, a silver 3-series is right on his ass. I mean I have never seen masterful tailgating like this before, as this little Bimmer was following this ambulance at about 20 MPH with less than 6 inches of clearance between bumpers. Keep in mind, I am still half in the right lane when all of the other cars are barreling at me, following the BMW’s lead. A blue A4 nearly clips me as I try to move over, and a Durango manages to squeeze by, but not before honking his horn, like I was the jackass in this scenario.

So here is my conclusion. These people are douchebags. Seriously, how impatient and in a rush are you that you have to risk rear-ending an ambulance just to save a few minutes. The ambulance is on its way to possibly save a life, and this is why it cuts through traffic. From what I could tell about these drivers, these cars were on their way to their mistresses / nail appointments / awkward family dinner when the kids know a divorce is imminent. Hardly the emergency that grants the type of privileges that let someone cut through traffic. Oh yeah, and its also really illegal to do this.

So here’s the lesson for today. Don’t be that guy.

But I also owe you a site update. Sorry I haven’t posted anything in like two months. First it was the holidays, and then it was CES, then it was a lot of business travel. But I got a lot of content out of it, including hands-on reviews of the 2012 Challenger, Ford Fusion, and a ton of images of the real stars of CES, the cars.