Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/15/is-the-motorist-who-rear-ended-a-cop-in-this-viral-footage-former-congressman-madison-cawthorn.html
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The only new info so far, beyond quoting X, is
FHP spokesman Greg Bueno confirmed to the Miami New Times in a statement that an FHP vehicle was rear-ended by a 2021 Mercedes driven by a 28-year-old man [Cawthorn’s age and sex] from Cape Coral."
Public records show Cawthorn lives in Cape Coral, according to the newspaper.
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If it’s him he’s finding his level.
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Another high profile story about this guy rear ending somebody.
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You’d think that someone who was paralyzed in a car crash might be a tad more cautious while driving.
On top of all that, he’s had multiple charges of driving with a revoked license in the past. I wonder if he has a valid license now?
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10 bucks says this is a literal “when assholes collide”, as I bet the cop break checked him and Cawthorn failed the assignment. Lucky that no one else got hurt.
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Anyone else notice that she was sitting in the left lane not passing a tractor trailer until his aggressive tailgating, after which (based on her description) she was once again sitting in the left lane and had to swerve to the side because she was worried about a different car being so close they would rear-end her, and Cawthorn and the LEO were also in the left lane so she had to go to the right to get past them?
I see this all the time in Indiana. If you use the right-hand lane, you have free sailing because absolutely everyone — the people who want to speed and the people who want to sit in the lane without having to pay attention to traffic — drives in the left lane. And thus you get road rage and accidents whenever someone brakes quickly for whatever reason.
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My sentence for this if I had a similar driving history would be 2 years in county jail with a 2-5 year parole. Also a 5 digit fine. Who knows about Florida though.
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Alethea is the Greek for “truth”. [Αλήθεια] Not that this proves anything one way or another. I just thought I’d mention it.
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While I can absolutely agree with you that this can be infuriating if the person on the left lane is going slow, I have also been in the position where I am already going 10+ mph over the speed limit, and the truck to my right decides to also go that fast too - or right about that fast to where I am sslloowwwlly over taking them, and then a guy who wants to do 20+mph over the limit rides my ass. So now I feel like I gotta go 15-20+ so I can pass the truck with ample brake space between me and them, and let this guy pass.
Double infuriation points when they pull ahead of you and then start going like 11mph over the limit. Like, WTF was all of that back there?
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I’ve seen that all the time too. It’s not actually about speed, it’s about being in the lead position in the dominant lane.
The general point is, with everyone jockeying to be in the left lane at all times, this sort of accident happens all the time. It’s just that this time it was between a disgraced former Congressman and a LEO instead of two general citizens.
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You’d think, but you have more than 2 brain cells to rub together. Madison Cawthorn has clearly never had that advantage.
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She sounds like a lousy driver, I agree.
Tailgating, or following less than 2 seconds behind another driver, is stupid. If you have to frequently touch your brakes on the freeway, it’s because YOU are following too closely. Following too closely is the reason drivers have accidents when someone brakes quickly. It may, if fact, also be the reason why the person was braking quickly to start with.
I can’t drive faster than the car in front of me, and I won’t tailgate just because the guy behind me wants to go faster. I will speed up or move over when I can.
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Or you could follow the actual rules, which say you’re to stay to the right except when you are actively passing someone in front of you.
Everyone in the left lane ends up like this situation, way too often.
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There are actual rules about speeding too.
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Glad to see we aren’t passing up an opportunity to judge a woman’s driving when it was someone else that caused an accident…
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Who said I wasn’t actively passing someone? Even if I’m passing someone, I still can’t go faster than the car in front of me.
And "keep right except to pass is NOT the law in Maryland, where I do 99% of my driving, although it is a generally acknowledged best practice.
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But those scofflaws get tickets at least some of the time. I’m using this situation as a PSA because most of the time, if it’s just two motorists, often enough road rage is involved and someone does in fact get hurt or killed. We wouldn’t have even heard this story if the dangerous driver wasn’t recognizably Cawthorn…it would have just been another day ending in “y”.
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Hear hear. We have no idea about the witness’s driving except she got tailgated while in the left lane – that can unquestionably happen while you are legitimately passing other vehicles, if the person behind you decides they just want to drive even faster. And then we know nothing about what lane she was in when she stopped. But most importantly, it’s not the point of the story.
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