I had just driven out of the state of North Carolina en route to New York and was traveling through Virginia. The only vehicles on the interstate were a tractor trailer in the lane to the right of me and what looked like a small car several miles behind me. As I was driving, I glanced in my rearview mirror and noticed that the little car had gained quite a bit of speed because it was now only a couple of miles behind me. When I glanced back again a few seconds later, I noticed that this little car was rapidly approaching me. It was dark and wet outside because it had been raining, and just to err on the side of caution, I slowed down even more than what I was currently driving so as to give this person the hint to go around me. The tractor trailer was still in the lane to my right a few hundred feet ahead of me. Sure enough, the little car rapidly approached me in my lane and decided to go around me in the left lane. As it did so, I suddenly had the feeling to slow down even more. I knew that the left lane on highways was notorious for collecting water, and I just had a bad feeling.
No sooner had I slowed down my car, the vehicle that had just passed me in the lane to my left suddenly lost control, hit the guard wall, shot right across my lane and flew into the side of the tractor trailer before sliding back across my lane, into the guard wall and slowing to a stop. Shocked, I slowed to a crawl and slowly approached the vehicle. I could see that the airbags had deployed within the car, and as I approached, two young guys shakily emerged from the car….laughing. I saw that the tractor trailer had slowed down ahead (probably wondering what had hit him). As I approached the two guys, I rolled down my window and asked if they were ok and/or if they needed any help. They were still laughing and explained that they were fine and didn’t need anything. With my window rolled down, I could smell the overwhelming smell of marijuana. I didn’t wait for a second queue before I slowly drove off. Those guys could have seriously hurt themselves. More importantly, if I hadn’t had the foresight to slow down when I did, there is no doubt that my Jeep as well as me included would have been seriously injured.
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