Just got back from a trip to the St. Louis Park Home Depot and I almost smashed up the truck on the way.
Heading east on 394 I get off on the Xenia/Park Place exit. This ramp (if you haven’t seen it) is three lanes wide at the end. One left turn lane, one left turn or go straight lane and one right turn lane.
The light was red as I hit the bottom of the ramp. I was going about 60 and coasting down. There were four cars stopped in the center lane at the light and a Jeep Cherokee heading up the ramp in front of me.
I put on the blinker for a left turn and head for the far left lane. The Jeep puts on his right blinker and heads for the far right lane.
As I was about halfway up the ramp in the left lane the light turned green. I started accelerating again to make the light and beat the cars in the middle lane through the corner. I was probably doing about 40.
At the last possible moment the Jeep decides he wants to turn left. And he wants to do it from the far left lane. The lane I’m in. He puts on his left turn signal and makes about a 90 degree turn across the lanes right in front of me. Frankly I’m surprised he didn’t clip the back end of the last car in the middle lane, he left it that late.
I’ve been watching him – since my spidey sense was tingling – so I see his blinker and as soon as I realize he’s coming all the way over into my lane I stomp on the brakes, jam on the horn and steer as far to the left as possible.
By the time I get stopped he’s in front of me at about a 45 degree angle and my front right corner can’t be further than 2 inches from his door. My horn is still blaring and his window is open, so I know he knows I’m there.
What do you think he does next?
He completely ignores me and the fact that I just about smashed in the whole side of his Jeep and heads up the ramp and around the corner.
Most annoyingly he turns left again on to the service road and doesn’t go to Home Depot! I so wanted to yell at him!
I’m happy the ABS helped me stop (I’m sure faster then without) but I sure missed the sound of locked up tire squealing. 🙂
If it wouldn’t have been such a hassle for me I would have steered a little less and not braked quite so hard. But of course, I would have been hitting him from the rear and it would have been all my fault.
Putz.
