Now the idiocy and asshole meters above refer to the following story submitted by a reader who had quite an encounter with a stereotypical, aggressive, selfish, oblivious L.A. driver.:

“I just came across your website a couple of weeks ago and am so glad I did. LA is notorious for its brainless, distracted, self centered, egotistical drivers. Now to share my story….

This morning I was traveling west in the left lane on Santa Monica approaching Highland (little to no traffic). The light turned yellow when I was at the intersection and me and a big white work truck, traveling side by side, proceeded through the intersection, but in his lane a bus was pulling away from the curb. Instead of slowing down to yield to the bus, he just came into my lane. I put on my brakes and pulled left, which forced me into oncoming traffic. He clipped my side mirror with the side of his truck. I laid on my horn and he just kept driving. I got behind him, as he was now in my lane, and I flashed my lights and honked my horn…thinking, “maybe he doesn’t know he hit me.”

He continued to drive away and switch lanes as we approached traffic, maybe in an attempt to lose me. When we were behind stopped traffic, I pulled up on his passenger side and he already had his window down waiting for me to talk to him. The first thing he said to me was why was I trying to push him into the bus. What?! Me? Push him into a bus? I told him that he hit my mirror. I told him that there is dent with my paint on it on the side of his truck. He asked if my mirror was damaged. I told him that I have not looked at it and that I needed to pull over first. I asked if he would pull over if I pulled over. He told me that he didn’t have time to pull over. Wow. Sorry to impede on the importance of your life buddy! After he told me that, he started to drive away and I said “don’t make me call the cops,” at which his reaction was to stop and start calling me names like “little bitch” and just talking trash.

He finally pulled into a strip mall at the corner of La Brea and Santa Monica on the NE corner. I pulled up next to him and got out to inspect the damage. The whole time I was looking at my mirror he was berating me and just acting like an asshole. My mirror was loose and wasn’t fastened to the door all the way, and he just told me that my car was a piece of shit. (Imagine that, it must be the car and not the fact that his work truck just sideswiped me.)

The guy was all up in my face, white guy with a medium build, about 6’1″ with a shaved head. I started to cuss back at him, hoping I would communicate effectively the events that just took place…”you hit my fucking car homie.” [Editor's note: I wouldn't recommend doing this at all, particularly to someone this clueless and aggressive.]  He told me that he would give me a “free one.” He said that he would let me hit him once in the face and then he would “beat the shit out of [me].” I walked back to my car and got a pen and paper and then he asked if I wanted his information. He told me that he would give me his “fucking information.” He said “my number is on the back of the truck if you want it.” He proceeded to get into his truck, telling me how much of a bitch I was and how I needed to become a man. (I wonder if he would teach me…) Just before he drove off, I got his license plate number (CA 5O5****) and around the license plate frame it said “Sid Electric” on top and a number on the bottom [phone number omitted].

I thought that he worked for Sid Electric and tried calling the number to report him but it just went to a voice mail for ***. That was the douchebag who was just the biggest asshole that I have encountered while living here in LA. I didn’t leave a message and just hung up. About a minute later *** called me back (caller ID) and asked “who’s this.” I explained that I thought this was a company number that I was trying to call and then he said to me, “oh is this the guy that just hit my truck? You know its going to cost me about 150 bucks to fix that dent in my truck and now that I have your number I will be calling you to send you a bill. So be looking for my call.” I thought that was very nice of him to call me back so I said “okay, you got it buddy.”

And that is my story. I didn’t call the cops. Nothing to report to insurance. Just a douchebag to report to the land of Karma.  I hope *** had a great rest of the day and I pray that he doesn’t mouth off to the wrong person who just might not be so nice and decide to put two in his chest. I just got off the phone with the company Sid Electric and the manager was gone for the day but the receptionist said that she would have him call me tomorrow. Lets see what happens next.

I wish I was grounded enough to take a picture of this jerk and his truck, but it was all so surreal at the time. I will be sending in pictures of idiotic drivers to you in the near future…as I am surrounded by them all the time.  Thanks for the soundboard.”

If the white truck was a company car, and the driver an employee, I sincerely hope that the owner of Sid Electric will have a serious discussion with his employees about how to behave on the roads, especially since they represent the company.  And I have a few words I want you all to remember: hit-and-run. By law, you must pull over if you are involved in any collision whatsoever.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it’s your fault or if you’re too busy and have better things to do.  Pull over to the side of the road.  If you ever encounter a driver like the driver of this truck, do not hesitate to call 911 or your local law enforcement in the area.  Aggressive, clueless drivers who have no concept or respect of the law have no business being on our roads.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: driving is a privilege not a right.  And it’s a privilege that can be taken away.

“Last night my daughter came home in tears.  Her new Astra was rear-ended by a “Hit and Run” driver while down in Hollywood–Highland and 3rd street–last night!  A guy in a black, late model Mercedes was “hauling ass” and ran right into her while she was stopped at a red light.  She saw the idiot coming and braced for the impact, “Ka Pow”, right into the back end of her car.  Then the “Drunken Son of A Bitch” backed up, got out of his car, looked at all the damage to his car and hers, then got back in his car, and burned rubber running away from the crash site, driving like a crazy person all over the sidewalks and speeding away before [my daughter] could even get his license number or a photo of the SOB!

She dialed 911, but no cops were available at the time, and she was in complete shock that somebody could actually do this, and to her!  Well, they did!  Her car is basically “ok” and took that crash pretty well, but the underside may have some damage because the Mercedes slid under her car, picking it up by the back end and moving it a few feet [after the initial impact].

Based on the way this drunken SOB dressed and acted, you knew that it was not his car, or he had no license, or he had a bunch of warrants for his arrest, or he was on some kind of dope, or…ALL OF THE ABOVE!  The guy showed no class or interest in sharing “papers”, because more than likely he didn’t want the police involved or has no insurance anyway!  [My daughter" is heartbroken; she really loves that Astra and has taken great care not to scratch it or get a ding in it, and now this BS happens to her!  She called her insurance company, and she has a police report made out and will make sure that the insurance company gets it, but she is so distraught to think that someone could and would do this!  Well, welcome to L.A., baby!

Take care of yourself and always be aware of SOB's like this who'd do such a thing...hell, in L.A. if someone doesn't stop after hitting a pedestrian and running them over, why would someone else stop after a crash with another car?  This state is getting real bad when it comes to this sort of crap.  You can't expect people to "do the right thing" anymore; you just have to reach for your "camera phone" (which [my daughter] was getting from the floor by the front seat to take a picture of the accident) but the A-Hole in the Mercedes saw that and took off before she could get a picture!  Bastard!”

Most importantly, the girl was not seriously injured in this accident.  Although this happened on surface streets, it is not uncommon to see a good 1 out of 4 drivers on the freeways driving recklessly late at night.  And it is not a stretch for me to say that many of these drivers are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  If any born-and-raised Los Angelenos out there are reading this, you can vouch for the fact that each and every one of you know at least a handful of people who’ve driven home drunk, stoned, high, etc.  The DUI laws and penalties have gotten more strict in recent years, but we still need to do our part to make sure our friends and loved ones do the right thing and drive sober.

“Attached are two photos taken the RAINY night of Thursday (2/5) in Hollywood, within a block of each other.

The first (Exhibit A) was a car sitting in the oncoming traffic’s left turn, lane waiting for clearance to cut across traffic into a Carl’s Jr on the corner of Highland and Sunset.  He was sitting there for a good 3-4 minutes; he then eventually pushed his way into our lanes once our light turned green and there was a bit of room.  He didn’t seem to mind that his front and rear bumpers were blocking both directions of traffic, forcing people to swerve around him – he just really wanted his burger.

The second (Exhibit B) was taken just north of Sunset on Highland.  This lovely driver pulled out to make a left turn without bothering to make sure there was clearance.  His ass hung out in traffic for about a minute, blocking the way and forcing people to swerve around him.  He eventually muscled his way into our lane.

We weren’t able to take any photos on Friday night (2/6), but on La Cienega S. near the 405, where we spotted numerous people driving in the rain while talking on their hand-held mobile phones.  Lovely.  The best was a woman who waited until the last minute to muscle her way onto the on-ramp for the 405 south, nearly sideswiping us.  She then proceeded to drive slower than the speed of traffic to merge and left her blinker on.  As we passed her on the freeway in the rain, I noticed she had her interior light on, a pad and pencil in one hand and a mobile phone in the other that she was texting/dialing on.  She was NOT LOOKING AT THE ROAD!  And I guess she was driving with her knees?  Or a pinkie finger?  We got away from her as quickly and safely as possible.”

Whether it be tailgating in the canyons or initiating a left turn without waiting for clearance, L.A. drivers are notorious for operating within the confines of immediate gratification without pausing to think about the entire length of their commute.  Though there are plenty of good, safe drivers in this town, there are enough idiots and assholes to make L.A. one of the top 5 worst cities plagued with road rage.  It’s almost as if the minds of these awful drivers can’t possibly cope with anything other than that which is immediately front of them.  They frequently, and pathetically, fail to calculate the risk/reward of any asinine or dickheaded maneuver and will arbitrarily chuck any traffic laws or regulations to the wayside, as long as they meet their immediate objectives.

By the way, we wanted to give a quick shout-out to LA Snark for mentioning L.A. Can’t Drive in its top 15 Los Angeles blogs list.  We hear your commuting pain….