Firestarter

Yes it is. All our reactions are human reactions, by definition. That doesn't mean that no one can criticise any of them. And I say you're wrong, because I have.

Normal people still note license plates. My wife and I were in a hit-and-run a couple of months ago. It was an almost identical situation, come to think of it, though worse in most ways. Some guy on a highway cut in between our lane and the one on our left, deliberately smashed into the side of our car, and broke off our driver's side mirror. He then went up the nearest exit ramp (about 5 seconds away, max) while we stayed on the highway. We both got his license plate immediately even though traffic was thick (but still moving at 50-60 mph). One more time: looking at a license plate is not rocket science. It is one of the most basic and elementary rules of the road; it should be a reflex for any driver. There is no excuse for not doing it. Being scared, high on adrenaline, whatever - if you don't look at someone's license plate when he's harassing you, you're an idiot. It's just that simple.

There's no need to adopt that tone. I haven't flamed you. Would it be a fair assumption that they slowed down just a bit to pull off the exit ramp? (No idea if they did or not, just asking.) Possibly. On the one hand, most people do. On the other, most people don't have reason to believe that someone else is reporting them to the police at the time. Both that assumption and the opposite have equal validity, lacking specific data. True, assuming SNSD continued at 85 mph along 163 N, thus speeding straight past the other car. Although then that begs the question of why she didn't slow down a bit as well and stay on the highway in order to note the license plate. Which in turn can be answered by Ripper's assertion that she was, at that point, an "overreacting headcase," but that doesn't really make her look any better. My primary point throughout this thread was that it was not physically impossible for SNSD to note the license plate number had she been thinking clearly. That she wasn't I consider a further count against her, rather than the mitigating circumstance everyone else seems to consider it.

"AndGiveYourUndyingSympathy" doesn't fit. You'd have to put it in the subtitle.

Nope. It was a fair extrapolation from your "doughnut" line, which speaks to a contemptuous and denigrating stereotype: I objected to that because cops do more than eat doughnuts. Possibly I misinterpreted what you were saying, in which case you should clarify.

When it turned. Put two matchboxes side by side and make one turn off (NOT at a 90 degree angle, mind you) onto an exit ramp. It would be ridiculously easy to see the back of the second from the front of the first. Direct line of sight. And if the two are moving at exactly the same speed (85 mph, according to you) then how is the license plate vanishing into the distance at such a great rate that it becomes impossible to read within 2 seconds?

I'm not assuming anything of the sort. You brought up the possibility, and I suggested possible explanations other than those coloured by your evident dislike of the police. On the contrary, when I said that she should have stopped, I assumed a police officer was in the car.

NORTH and EAST are two different directions. Maybe your blind flaming has clouded your judgment of the facts. In two seconds? That's still one hell of a car. Is she sure it was white? Couldn't have been a black Trans Am with a flashing bar of red lights on the front?

"Congratulations?" For what? I was asking a simple question which I presumed you could answer based on the fact that you actually spoke to her shortly after the incident. I thought it was a rhetorical question. You so rarely ask questions that you actually want to hear answers to that I assumed you were making an argument. No, it wasn't rhetorical. Do you intend to answer it?

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. They did a 180 degree turn in two seconds and went south on 52 EAST? I guess that car did have wings after all. Seriously, just quit while you're, well, behind. Exit ramps go in the same direction as the damn highway for at least the first third of the stretch, for chrissakes.

"Congratulations?" For what? I was asking a simple question which I presumed you could answer based on the fact that you actually spoke to her shortly after the incident.

Thanks Dames. It has been a while for me, and I've missed it; this is fun.

In light of the fact that you consider me a superstar, I'd like mine now.

Perhaps your personal relationship with her colours your judgement of the facts. And you'd be wrong. Because "Some drama...." is just so specific. I'm sorry, I guess the five periods in the nonstandard extended ellipsis should've tipped me off.

Keeping a crime scene clear, possibly? Was he even in the car? Maybe he was on foot somewhere else? Your assumptions just establish a prejudice against the police and prove nothing. Um... yes, yes you can. If they were practically on her ass most of the time, when they moved away they must have still been pretty close, right? License plates are designed to be legible at a reasonable distance.

They're not his boobs, though. Trust me. Tom doesn't have that even a tan.

I've answered that question already. Yes, I have. Many times. But I didn't make a public spectacle of myself subsequently, and if I had, and anyone had criticised my behaviour, I wouldn't have rejected the criticism on the grounds that I was acting instinctively under pressure and I wasn't responsible for my actions. That's one of the cheapest cop-outs I've ever heard in my life.

Doesn't that describe pretty much every thread in NHB?

Nice try. <g>

I don't know any police officer who'd do that. Much more likely is that the officer in question was busy with something else and couldn't leave the scene. He'd still have helped if she'd stopped. How do you know? Were you in the car with her? And wasn't the best opportunity to get the plate when the jackasses fled up 52 E? What was the problem then? Were her headlights not working? (Oh, shut up. Yes, we've been talking about her tits because she makes them the centrepiece of her personality, but that wasn't a double entendre.) Probably, yes.

If you like. But noting an aggressive driver's license plate should be the second instinct of every person behind a steering wheel (the first, naturally, being to keep yourself and others out of danger). If it isn't, it means you're a piss-poor driver. Here we disagree. Here we agree.

Which can and should be controlled. Not in the same ballpark. Not even close. True. But adults have a responsibility to act sanely and rationally and overcome any tendency towards hysterics that they might have. Yes. In fact, she handled it spectacularly incorrectly. If I were to sit down and come up with a list of things NOT to do in that situation, most of her actions would be on it. About the only things she could have done to make it worse would have been to slam her car into his or to stop and get out of her car. No?

I second that. That's a great idea.

Your joke was better than your argument. Right ho, Sir Falstaff.

Fine, but why? Because, in your apropos phrase, she was an "overreacting headcase." I don't think it's unfair to criticise her for being an overreacting headcase. She was never in any personal danger of any kind. Her imagination ran away with her and she at least figuratively wet her pants for that reason and that reason alone. I find that absurd and disgusting in an adult. Subsequently, of course, as even you freely admit, her behaviour didn't even have the flimsiest facsimile of an excuse.