[s-cars] NAC: Rear-ended on the Autobahn

[Wayne Dohnal]

>What in the $*^%@ was the explanation/excuse given by the offending driver?

"I guess I was going to fast and the brakes didn't work very well".

I got 3 glances of him in the rear view mirror.  The first time he was
pretty far back.  On the 2nd glance I thought he had gotten a lot closer in
a big hurry.  On the 3rd glance I thought "Oh #%$%" and hit the throttle,
but I thought he still had plenty of space to slow down and we'd get a light
tap at the worst.  Makes me wonder if he ever slowed down at all.

I drove another 300 miles on the Autobahn today and I think some of these
people are truly crazy.  They routinely pull up to 1 car length spacing
while the car in front is going 80 to 90 mph.  Went by another rear-ender
today, too, with a lot more damage than mine, ambulances, etc.  I'm
currently thinking that the no speed limit and no interval driving in
Germany is kind of analogous to guns in the U.S.  It's something that's
risky, thrilling, can kill a lot of people, and is considered a birthright
and thus is politically untouchable.

I've seen more brand new Audis, bimmers, and Mercedes in the last couple of
weeks than I thought existed.  More than half of them are black and most of
the rest are silver.  And all of them are sparkling clean.  I wonder how
they manage that?