Truck on your tail: What to do?

[Benzadmiral]

A strange question indeed, but I thought I'd appeal to the collective wisdom here.

I'm working on a story in which the hero and his wife are driving up to Taos, New Mexico, on a failing attempt to resuscitate their marriage. While at a gas station, the hero gets into a small scuffle with a guy who insulted his wife. Then, as they drive up the twisting road (the High Road to Taos, it's called), the guy comes after them in an ancient pickup and tries to ram them off the road.

What can he try to avoid this?

Conditions: The road is twisty, as I said, rising up through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Some of you may know it well. Evening is falling and it's raining lightly. The hero knows the road in the casual way you do when you drive it once or twice a year. He's not a professional race car driver.

The point of the scene, however, is to show what he does to avoid a crash, if there is anything one can do in this situation. And then he fails, the car crashes, he's injured, and his wife dies (or is in a coma, I haven't decided).

I pictured the car as a recent (2000 or so) Mercedes E320, if it matters.

Any ideas?

 

[wavinwayne]

Switch lanes quickly, while the truck behind is following closely. Slam on the brakes, he'll fly right by....

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Switch lanes quickly, while the truck behind is following closely. Slam on the brakes, he'll fly right by....


Yes, then before he clears you, turn into his left rear quarter and floor it!

 

[Cup of Joe]

It reminds me of the movie "Duel" with Dennis Weaver. If you have not seen it, it may give you some ideas for truck versus car on a mountain road. For instance the duel is about a big rig but an old truck could have the same problem. The truck simply could not keep up on the steep up hill portion but caught up on the down hill portion. Since the movie was set in the 70's Dennis Weavers car started to over heat going so fast up hill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_(film)

 

[Johnny]

Well, in your story, he does switch lanes quickly and the truck fly's right by, but since the road is wet he looses control and goes over the edge anyway.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Hmmm. On a straightway, or a long shallow curve, these would work -- heck, on a straightway, he could simply outrun the truck. But if the road turns sharply and he changes lanes, he'd have to take a chance that nobody is coming down the other way!

ETA: Johnny, I like your scenario -- the pickup shoots past, but on the slippery road the Benz fishtails.

I pictured it happening as they come up on a T-junction where the highway meets another state road, and you have to turn left or right. Our hero could dodge, as above, then he hits a patch of oil on the road just as he thinks he might make it, and the car goes over the edge and down the slope just short of the T-junction. The pickup hurtles past, runs the stop sign, and smashes into the cliff.

 

[eljefino]

Pull into a gas station or other populated area and call 911.

Not dramatic enough for a story, sorry.

Weaver's problem in "Duel" was his inability to contact the authorities. We see his phone booth flattened in one scene as he was slowly trying to contact the police (by dialing the Operator in those pre-911 days). You would have to write in a cellular "dead zone".

His car overheating was somewhat of a dramatic writing crutch as at the start of the movie we see it has only 4000 miles!

Now if you want a dramatic answer, if the hero is sure he can outdrive his pursuer, just pass an 18 wheeler with oncoming traffic just far enough away, do a handbrake turn after a blind corner and zip the other direction, then dodge down a side street.

 

[Johnny]

There you go. He got rid of the aggressive driver and the wife with the bad marriage.

 

[Johnny]

When you finish this story please post the site where it can be read. I enjoyed reading your last short story.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
When you finish this story please post the site where it can be read. I enjoyed reading your last short story.


Thank you, sir! I dunno if this is going to wind up a novel or what; I'm really just exploring the character and seeing if this is something entertaining.

However, I've just had another story (part of the 1960s private eye series) accepted by an online magazine called Mysterical-E. They don't pay, but they're well thought of, and they publish four times a year: http://www.mystericale.com/index.php

They say it will probably be in the Spring issue.

 

[Johnny]

What name do your stories post under, or should I say you pen name.

 

[Steve S]

The car has a secret supercharger and with a push of a button the horsepower doubles and away you go.

 

[Crusader]

If it was me . . . and the 911 call won't work and there are no public place to pull over to etc. . . . and if the nut case loose cannon like this is really trying to run him off the road that qualifies as lethal force with intent to severely injure and threat of imminent death then this clown is running a very high risk of getting shot at if the clear opportunity arises. Just so you know I'm legal to carry concealed in 26 of our 50 states.

I know what I would do personally but you need to weigh all your options. My last option is to take out the nut job. The down side to this is we live in such a gun phobic culture where the common soccer mom and even the average male, even some hunters, have this brainwashed idea that guns are only for Bad Guys and Cops. There is now this goofy idea that NO average Joe should be running around with a weapon for ANY reason. Be prepared to go to court and loose all your net worth if it is not a clear cut case of self defense to the local District Attorney.

I could site several court cases where a average Joe Permit to CCW holder was basically caught in a justifiable case of self defense but the defense screwed up the case due to incompetence or simply not knowing how defend these types of cases. Meanwhile to good guy goes to the slammer and his life is ruined.

It would seem that it's just better to just be a victim in our society and take your chances than to take a stand and defend yourself and family.

I however reserve my individual right to decide up until the last second. What concerns me the most is the delay and hesitation caused by these very issues in situatiuons of clear cut self defense.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: eljefino


His car overheating was somewhat of a dramatic writing crutch as at the start of the movie we see it has only 4000 miles!



Sometimes a story or movie ending looks like the writer just got tired of working on it and decided to put it out of it's misery.

 

[pickled]

I hadn't seen that movie in forever...definitely it's a rich source of material for the OP!

DP

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

He has his wife dump motor oil as he's driving so the truck loses traction and crashes.

 

[Solo2driver]

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Switch lanes quickly, while the truck behind is following closely. Slam on the brakes, he'll fly right by....


Top Gun?

 

[drivewaytech]

I like the lethal force approach. The truck is in pursuit to run the Merc off the road. After a few terrorizing rams from the truck, your hero courageously opens the glove compartment while navigating the mountain pass and pulls out a pistol. He rolls down the window and aimlessly fires a couple of shots. The wife, distraught from fear, begins yelling at the husband to stop firing and tries to wrestle the gun from his left hand. In the struggle, she is shot and the car goes careening off the road. Opens an avenue of framing the crazy guy in the truck.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: TaterandNoodles
It reminds me of the movie "Duel" with Dennis Weaver. If you have not seen it, it may give you some ideas for truck versus car on a mountain road. For instance the duel is about a big rig but an old truck could have the same problem. The truck simply could not keep up on the steep up hill portion but caught up on the down hill portion. Since the movie was set in the 70's Dennis Weavers car started to over heat going so fast up hill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_(film)

I well remember the movie, and the original short story by Richard Matheson when it appeared in Playboy. Matheson is (was?) one of the screenwriters who could really wind up the tension and suspense -- he wrote the "Enemy Within" episode of the original Star Trek, the TV-movie "The Night Stalker," and that classic with Karen Black being pursued in her apartment by a devil doll with a carving knife. I wish I could come up with ideas like that!

 

[Anduril]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
The car has a secret supercharger and with a push of a button the horsepower doubles and away you go.

Better yet, hyperdrive.