Usually I let tailgaters go past often before they even think of getting too close. It's not worth the effort to play with them. I rarely get tailgated anyway because usually I do a lot of over taking. Sometimes though there is nothing you can do about it. In that situation I have been known to flip on my fog lamp. A few minutes of staring at that eye searing red lamp soon cures their enthusiasm.
I had a lucky escape recently. We were in a line of cars but there were no overtaking opportunities. Behind me was an SUV who while not tailgating as such was really too close for comfort and driving a bit too aggressively. I couldn't let him through and in any case he was going nowhere with the line of cars ahead. But I kept an eye on his antics.
The road led into a series of tightish curves and the line of cars spread out a bit. Suddenly the car ahead braked and only then switched on the indicator for a turn in the middle of a bend. I braked hard but I was far enough behind and wasn't particularly bothered. I would stop fairly easily. But then I remembered the SUV. He was just out of sight in the last bend and I just knew he was never going to stop in time. So to my wife's surprise. I floored it and shot through the smallish gap the stopped car had left on the inside. Just in time too. I watched events unfold in my mirror. The SUV appeared and he braked very hard and tried to avoid the car. But it was no good and he hit it. Not too hard luckily. I could see the surprised look on the faces of the car's driver and passenger as first they were pushed back in their seat then forward against their belts. This all took place in the space of a few seconds.
A minor fender bender and at first I felt a bit smug about my quick reactions and even slightly guilty that I dodged a bullet with my name on it. But soon a cold chill ran through me when I realised I had actually avoided quite a serious accident. You see, if I had stopped behind the car. We would have been that much further up the road when the SUV arrived and we would have been hit at a much higher speed and then possibly pushed very hard into the car in front. Nasty indeed.
My wife, of course, was almost completely oblivious to most of the incident except for my sudden acceleration past the stopped car and thinks I exaggerated the whole thing. Typical.
