Almost died because of an angry driver.
Today I picked up my new car. It's the first "expensive" car I've ever bought with my own money.
On the drive home, I was merging onto the highway when someone came up behind me at an incredibly high speed and tailgated me aggressively. They stopped, I guess, less than 30 cm from my rear bumper. Every safety alarm in my new car went on, the warning lights came on, the music stopped, and the collision alerts started blaring.
It completely disoriented me, and I changed lanes as quickly as I could to let them pass.
As they pulled alongside me, they gave me the middle finger. Out of pure reflex, I gave it back. That's not something I usually do. I was just in shock.
The moment I did, they accelerated, cut in front of me, and then slammed on the brakes.
At that point, we were already on the highway with traffic moving around 120 km/h. I looked down at my speedometer, and I was down to around 30 km/h.
For a few seconds, I genuinely thought I was about to get crushed between this guy and the car behind me.
Thankfully, nothing happened, but I honestly felt like I watched my whole life flash before my eyes.
I'm someone who avoids conflict. I'd much rather walk away than confront someone. I think I felt "safe" because I was inside my car, so I reacted automatically. Lesson learned. I instantly regretted it. The biggest danger often isn't your own driving