Last night was a major milestone for my truck. After much anticipation and many close close calls from the wonderful Houston drivers out there (Ya'll know who you are) I finally got hit for the fourth time last night. Houston weather has not been great as of late and yesterday was no exception as it was raining most of the day however, from what I can tell the weather, as much as ignorance was not a factor in this accident.

Now, by no means to I drive a small truck and most drivers, excluding the big rigs and your CXT owners. I drive a 2001 Ford F-250 Super Duty Crew Cab 4x4 jacked up 8 inches and rolling on aggressive 38" Toyo M/T tires. My front and rear replacement bumpers can easily mangle the top of your average sedans trunk or destroy a pickup's bed while the rear tow hitch has been known to stop a Ford Mustang before.

The truck has been hit 3 times before. The first was a simple "tag: you're it" in a parking lot where the tagger lost their bumper. The second and third collision happened at the same time on the freeway where I was the meat in a collision sandwich which resulted in tow trucks for owners of the two totaled vehicles on either end of my truck. Again, the only damage that happened was easily fixed with a can of spray paint on the bumpers. So far, I have not been sited at fault for any of the the accidents I described.

This leads us up to last night. It's been almost a year since I was in my last wreck and I think of myself as a careful driver. Running 38" wheels, I know the truck doesn't stop or react like it used to in emergency situations, so I drive accordingly, giving other drivers plenty of space in any direction and last night was no exception.

I was driving a simple 40 mph down on of the larger Houston roads. Some weird looking guy in a black explorer came up next to me and kind of looked at weird. He then floored his truck, like he wanted to race. Whatever, My trucks a large off-road truck. I'm not interested in something like racing. When I didn't take the bait, he slowed down, allowing his explorer to slow down to match my speed. Keep in mind that this is a large Houston road and there was plenty of traffic on the road. To my front was a mini-van, no doubt sporting several kids. To my right was a white Camero and behind me, another Super Duty truck.

As this guy slows down and gets even with my front wheel, he suddenly starts to come to the right. Dodging right isn't an option for me because of the Camero. I slam on the breaks and hope the Super Duty's driver behind me is paying attention, but it's to late. The explorer contacts my front wheel. The Brush guard portion of my replacement bumper makes quick works of the side windows. The rear quarter panel of the Explorer is seen been thrown through up between the two vehicles. The Explorer looks like it's going over speed bumps at 40 mph as it is heaved up repeatedly by my tire and I spew expletives repeatedly at the unknown driver.



Just as the Explorer starts to rotate in front of the Truck, we finally break contact and the Explorer is free to recover from skidding completely in front of the truck and ensuring it's demise. Wildly fishtailing on this road, the driver is able to regain control. He then pulls into his original lane, left wheel wobbling a proceeded to flee the scene.

Hello? You just hit my car and now your running? What the Hell? So I followed him while dialing police. As I talk to the police officer, this guy is driving slowly through residential streets like it never happened. The police officer advises me to discontinue the pursuit and wait for uniformed officers to do their job. I comply and pull over to assess the damage caused by the idiot in the explorer, while tow truck after tow trucks descends on the scene. To my surprise, not ONE scratch. The only evidence I can find is serious amount of scuffs on the wheel. The tow trucks, although disappointed that my truck doesn't need a tow, the ask me repeatedly who makes the bumpers and then head out in the direction that the explorer left in.

Once the police arrive, they advise me to just fill out an offence form, making the accident appear on paper, but not on my driving record. Thanks officer Martinez! Meanwhile the license plate search of the offender leads to a PO Box address and the name finds more that 30 possible here in Houston.

Jake

Chevy Truck = 0 Volvo s40 = 0 Chevy Trailblazer = 0 Ford Explorer = 0

Ford F-250 = 4