Drunk, or on Drugs, or Plain stupid, but probably all of the above.While driving along a two-lane country road, a grey Opal, number 4585 plus three letters came up behind me as we were travelling through a slow zone. but the minute the driver could do so he overtook me, tooting his horn in a manner that seemed to me that he was berating me.
I then noticed that he was driving in an erratic manner while doing about 80 kph. Next he caught up with a cyclist in a no-overtaking zone. He slowed right down behind the cyclist and engaged his hazard lights, and generally acted like a responsible driver. By this time I had caught up with him, and as soon as it was safe to overtake he did so, and I followed suit.
We were again doing 80 kph when I noticed he started to do very strange things behind the wheel. He was flailing his arms about, causing the car to swerve back and forwards across the road because he was not controlling the steering wheel. He was alone in the car, but I don't know if he was talking on a hands-free telephone. I decided to drop well back as not to be too close in the event he was about to crash.
He then seemed to notice that I had dropped back, at which time he applied his hazard lights again and slowed down to walking speed. As I came closer he sped up then dropped his speed, and I took those actions to be a provocation to me. I'm sure had I tried to overtake him he would have made that impossible.
I therefore pulled off the road and watched him go ahead at a snail's pace. I waited until other traffic came along. Fortunately it was a long line of cars and they started honking their horns which resulted in him speeding up and then he was gone.
This was at noonday, so what could have been his excuse for being on the road at that time in a condition that was inappropriate, other than he was drunk, on drugs or stupid? In my opinion he most likely was all three of those things combined.
One of the reasons for such an unacceptable high death rate on Spanish roads are drivers just like the one highlighted here.
Copyright (c) 2011 Eugene Carmichael
