Today was my lucky day on Route 18. I rarely drive in the morning (southbound in the evening) on that deadly stretch of Route 18 north that goes from about Tices Lane, over the New Jersey Turnpike and out to Route 1. Unfortunately, I had to do it this morning, and I am lucky to have survived … again.
After making the tricky move from the right lane on Route 18, through the traffic exiting the turnpike and safely reaching the right lane toward Route 1 north, I thought that I was safe. There was, however, a woman driving a very large red late-model truck who thought otherwise.
I drive a compact car, and apparently the other driver either didn’t see me or she just didn’t care. She just started to change to the right lane, even though I was alongside her. Here I sit in this little car about 2 feet off the ground, and this woman in this truck (or maybe it’s called a sports utility vehicle), whose tires are the same height as my roof, almost runs my car over. She would have run over my car if I hadn’t leaned on the horn and raced to get past her. Slamming on the brakes there is just asking to get killed.
Well, apparently this woman dislikes small cars immensely because now she comes roaring up to my bumper. Luckily, I was able to get some cars between her and me because now she starts chasing me down Route 1. I managed to get off the highway at an exit without this person following any farther.
This stretch of highway has to be one of the most dangerous places to be, without some road-rage idiot making it even more deadly. I realize how frustrating it can be to drive through this area, and it is almost impossible to get from Route 18 north onto Route 1 north, but that is no excuse for anyone to just cut off people or run them over. Add a little road rage to the mix and it becomes lethal.
I don’t know what the statistics are, but I’ll bet not a single day goes by without one or more accidents there. Traffic is such a mess there every day, I don’t know where the police can even monitor this area, much less enforce the law. There are trucks, buses and cars crisscrossing and changing lanes without regard to safety at all.
So to the woman in that large red vehicle and anyone else who has the misfortune of having to brave that section of road, you can’t run people over just to get where you want to go. You need to look more carefully before you change lanes. You folks driving in these big trucks, vans and SUVs need to be extra careful to make sure it is safe to change lanes because there are much smaller vehicles on the road.
There is no place that road rage is safe for anyone.
Jeff Kress
Old Bridge