Vigilante Justice...sort of.

There are a whole lot of lousy drivers out there, and when you're on the road as much as I am, you encounter far too many of them. It's not very often that you get to do anything about it -- short of honking the horn, there's not much one driver can do to contact another driver -- but I've gotten to do it twice this week.

The first was on my way home. In Evanston, switching from Sheridan Rd. to Chicago Ave., I ended up behind a pick-up whose brakelights weren't working. I've seen the truck before -- both times with three youngish Hispanic men inside. Fortunately, I was able to pull up next to them at a light a couple blocks later and let them know. The driver was surprised and grateful.

Then this afternoon, on my way back from lunch, I pulled up to a stop sign and was about to cross when I noticed a white Escalade coming toward the intersection from the left. He wasn't slowing down, so I stopped and watched him blow through his stop sign and pull up next to the Cadillac dealership at the next corner. The driver was dressed in a suit and tie, and the truck didn't have any plates but had the dealership badge on it -- so either it was someone on a test drive or a salesman. When I got to the office, I looked up the number of the dealership and called. I asked for a manager and told him what happened, described the location and the truck, and he apologized and said he'd check into it.

So I felt a little vindicated. I have no idea whether the driver will get in trouble, but at least I did something about it for once. At least I was able to.

Posted by Andrew Huff at November 21, 2003 03:10 PM