I was stuck behind a guy going 50 in the right lane of I-84 eastbound in Connecticut.
Everyone behind me was pulling out and getting into the left lane, but I was up against it. I kept looking for a gap. Finally I saw one and took it. Even as I got into the left lane, rapidly accelerating from 50 to 60 and on up, the bus in the left lane gained suddenly. It was right on my bumper and seemed to veer a little. The driver lay on the horn. I accelerated out of his way.
He kept laying on the horn. When I pulled into the right lane, he came alongside me and swung the bus toward me, as if to run me off the road. I swung with him a little but accepted it as my punishment.
He accelerated to pass me and then when he got in front of me he decelerated rapidly. I knew he’d do this and I decelerated too. He got down to 30 or 40 and began weaving between the left and the right hand lanes so that I couldn’t pass him, and nobody else could either. I guess he was pissed off. He put on his emergency blinkers and got down to 20 and 10 and then, amazingly, parked the bus in the middle of I-84, blocking both lanes. I saw the bus door opening on the right. I guess he was coming down to talk.
I had the presence of mind to swing around his left side, on to the shoulder, and take off. Behind me I could see the line of traffic parked behind him, in two lanes.
"What are you doing?" I said to my wife, whose arm was out the window.
"Giving him the finger."
"Don’t do that, he’s a crazy person, he’s going to follow us all the way to Massachusetts. Don’t do that!! He’s coming after me with a tire iron."
I kept it at 80 for a while but I could still see him in my rear view. It was like a horror movie. The white bus. I thought of slipping off the road at the next exit, then back on.
Then we came to 34 and he was gone. I guess he was going to New Haven.
I’ve thought about it a lot this weekend, amazed that it even happened, and I can’t stop blaming myself. I think I pulled out too slowly, didn’t pick the right gap. I know, he should have anticipated slow mergers, it was that kind of situation; still, I probably came close to running him off the road, a big bus, cruising along at 70 or 75, loaded with people? I know, he’s crazy. But wasn’t I in the wrong?
