New Jeep, Reckless Driver

Some drivers give us absurd amounts of clearance, which is what we thought the driver of the white Jeep was doing:

Some drivers give us very little clearance, either deliberately or though negligence, which is what I thought the driver of the silver Subaru was doing:

Reviewing the videos revealed a different story that could have ended very badly for everyone involved.

Moving back in time, we crossed the bridge over the Wappingers creek, which has two southbound lanes. The left lane is dedicated to left turns onto Red Oaks Mill Road and the right lane is for through traffic southbound on Rt 376:

I had noticed oncoming drivers in the northbound lane were moving far over to the fog line, but (unseen by me) they were definitely swerving off the road:

It seems the Jeep driver crossed the bridge in the left lane and continued straight through, passing the solid line of vehicles in the right lane behind us. You can see the top of the Jeep’s windshield peeking out behind the Subaru, with minimal clearance to the black car swerving out of the way:

There’s not much shoulder on that side of the road, but the driver of the white Honda is using it all:

With all the oncoming traffic out of the way, the Jeep driver now accelerates in the wrong lane:

And passes the Subaru just behind us:

The license plate looks like JAE-7751, early in the “J” plate series, so that’s a shiny new Jeep.

Being passed at close range in an obviously no-passing zone caused the Subaru driver to flinch in our direction:

Unsurprisingly, the Jeep driver ran the red light at the top of the hill, presumably to avoid being stopped directly in front of us.

Never a dull moment out there on the road …