Toyota Prius driver rams pickup truck in road-rage incident

The fuel-efficient Prius sustained more damage than the pickup. "I think the only damage was where the pickup's wheel ran up against the Prius," says a cop. (Colorado Springs Gazette)

Comments

[troschne]

Never bring a Prius to a Monster Truck show!! What a frigging douche!

[Displaced]

Is this odd because the guy was in a Prius? What if it were a Jetta or a Taurus?

[G-Man]

New on FOX - "When Liberals Attack"

"The charge was upgraded to a felony because people over 60 are considered "at-risk adults" under Colorado law"

What the f**k does that mean? Well I guess before you attack someone you better check their driver's license.

[elchampino]

You've got to be mentally ill to be ramming somebody with your car over who cut off who. That's a great way to get yourself and several other people killed.

I'm not gonna lie - when I was younger, if someone cut me off or pulled some other assholic maneuver, I'd immediately be filled with the need to reign righteous justice down on them. I'd speed up, cut them off, drive ridiculously slow in front of them, etc, whatever it took to "win".

Now that I'm older, I realized how stupid I was. My life is worth way more than some imagined road honor. Nowadays if someone cuts me off I just sigh and ignore them. I've learned not to care. It's the best defense I've ever had.

[twerp]

Another great moment of stupidity to go down in the records.

[troschne]

displaced--not really weird that he was in a Prius--just good reporting. I would just think that someone who was as environmentally conscious to buy a Prius might not be quite as big of a douche...

[Displaced]

Yeah, troschne, I agree that the detail is good. I guess I respond because in stories where I really want to know what kind of car the person was driving, like when someone accidentally leaves a kid in the car, backs over someone, rolls over in an accident, bursts into flames, etc. the kind of car is often missing.

I've got a few Prius-driving friends. They're environmentally conscious and/or a bit obsessive about MPG, but not necessarily more enlightened in other areas of life.

[OurHero]

Quote: "I would just think that someone who was as environmentally conscious to buy a Prius might not be quite as big of a douche..."

Wrong. The self-righteous environmentalist zealots are EXACTLY the type to be douchebags.

[RockyMtnMac]

What a stand-up guy!
He was, after all, driving a "fuel efficient" vehicle when he road raged into the senior citizen. His mom must be so proud!

[USMerc]

He can't have thought that the Prius would stand up to the pick-up...Didn't he see the size difference??? (Unless it was one of the tiny trucks--D-50, Chevy Luv, Ford Ranger etc...)

[Phranqlin]

The guy's an asshat for indulging in road rage, regardless of what kind of car he drives. (I personally prefer to indulge in fantasies about hood-mounted plasma cannons.) But the image of a little Prius ramming a big ol' Chevy pickup truck is highly amusing.

[troschne]

USMerc, that is EXACTLY what the point of my original post was!

[RockyMtnMac]

AND this happened in the Springs, which proves "THE STUPID" is circling around and headed back toward me Merc!
Perhaps we can fling "THE STUPID" up to Canada for awhile...

[Joe]

Ah, the Gazette, no less.

The fact that a guy in a Prius tried to ram a truck is the only reason that this article is notable.

I also love the Prius owners who trumpet about how "green" their car is because it uses slightly less gas than a compact lightweight normal car. Its a good thing those batteries don't harm the environment at all.

Oh wait, yes they do. A lot. And then you get to burn plenty of fossil fuel importing them from foreign countries.

[NitroPress]

Well, Joe, at least the batteries go towards saving energy in the long run. Unlike, say, that shipload of plasma TVs that burn it like there's no tomorrow...

I agree that Prius owners tend to be self-righteous pricks in many ways. "Look at me, I spent an extra $8k on my car to save ten gallons of gas a month! BOW TO ME!"

[Lou Sussler]

"Wrong. The self-righteous environmentalist zealots are EXACTLY the type to be douchebags"

Correct.

But that doesn't mean that all Prius owners are self-righteous environmentalist zealots. Many (not all) of them come across as concerned for the environment without the self-righteous or zealot portion.

[R]

The payback on the hybrids isn't good enough to get me to jump on that wagon. They should just buy a civic or a diesel jetta or even a focus. They each get great milage and cost thousands less. This guy is a real douche like troschne said. No way any idiot in their right mind rams a big chevy pickup with a prius...

[Torgo]

Seems like there's a lot of people who hate the Prius out there.

It's just a fuel-efficient car, people. It's not Leary's merry school bus.

[jj2]

He forgot the most important road rule of all, which is that "tonnage prevails."

[sometimesilie]

I know someone who has a Prius and she could give a shit about the environment. She thinks I'm some kind of asshole too...

[USMerc]

I don't know RMM....It's still stayin' a bit north of me....I might be better served to just lay low and hope it doesn't see me....OH ALRIGHT! I'll help send it farther north... Just don't blame me when my posts get dumber and dumberer because the stoopid gits in my haid...Oh great!

[lynn]

i know some one with a prius--she is a wankette if there ever was one--just cause my lil'sunfire isnot "green" (its scraped dirty black)& does not get 500 mpg. whoopee doodle

the best green car would be if the sun/moon roofs could be set up for solar energy....

[A.V.]

I'm 70.
An "at risk adult" is anyone who fucks with me.

I drive a pickup.

[RockyMtnMac]

LOL! Lynn.. "wankette" - my word of the day!

I've spent my share of time in trucks...

(yeah-DRIVING THEM-get your minds out of the gutters...
oh...I guess it was just my mind down there, nevermind.)

...and I like them so much more than little cars.

[NitroPress]

Torgo, I don't hate the Prius, but people need to do the math on it. It's expensive, not very luxe, has some serious maintenance and toxic waste issues after about four years, and is more a big "I'm so GREEEEEEEN!" billboard than a real solution.

Buy a Smart Car. Those things are *cool* and get fantastic mileage at far less bux and downside.

Buy any of the smallest Toyota or Nissan offerings. Almost the same mileage, lots cheaper and no special maintenance or hazard issues.

'Course, everyone won't know you're a Hollywood green freak (this week, anyway) unless it's a Prion. Prius. Prickless. Whatever.

[Nauip]

This all reminds me of "Smug Alert!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert!

South Park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[outofsalt]

I guess we're going to wind up with another superfluous warning in the user manual about not using Prii for road raging...sort of like the warning they have in my subcompact's manual about not using the car to tow.

[NitroPress]

Some comparative data. Note that I'm using the more sensible liters/100km measurement, which doesn't suffer from the numbers bias of MPG. City economy used. All prices are base models.

Prius, $22,000, 4.9 L/100km
Fit, $15,000, 8.7 L/100km
Yaris, $13,000, 8.1 L/100km
smart, $12,000, 7.1 L/100km

With fuel at about 50 cents a liter, that means a smart car will cost you $1.10 more to drive 60 miles than the Prius. You would have to drive 500,000 miles to make up the difference in cost.

Okay, we'll talk green. Yes, you're using about 45% more fuel, a whopping number... but in driving the smart 100,000 km you will only use 7100 liters of gas - or about 1700 gallons. That's vs. 4900 liters for the Prius, 1200 gallons. With the efficiency of smog controls, the emissions from either vehicle over its useful life will be nil.

Just for some perspective, a Mustang that gets 17 mpg is using almost 14 L/100km and would use 14,000 liters or 3400 gallons of gas to travel the same distance. So the diff between the small cars is small beans indeed... and the simpler, more reliable and overall cheaper tech of the Yaris, Fit, smart, etc. means the Prius's high cost, in all ways, is a shadow of what it's purported/believed to be.

[DoYouHaveAnyGreyPoupon?]

Ok, I admit it, I own a Prius. I bought it because I like the car and living in the boonies where the closest store is 8 miles away (and that's just a gas station convenience store!) it does help with the cost of gas - at least when gas was $4.00 a gal. Plus, my husband has a job where he is on the road a lot, so every little bit helps.
The thing is... we were in the market for a new car anyway when we bought it. Would we have traded in a car JUST to get a Prius? No. My other car is a gas-hog minivan needed to cart the kiddos and their friends and all their crap!
(Full disclosure... I also have solar panels on my roof!!! I'm not a frothing at the mouth environmentalist, but I love seeing that bill form the electric company come in and see that they had to pay ME this month! Hehehe!!)
I am interested in the Smart car... I wonder how it is in the snow.... it seems too light to be very good .... and I live in northern Maine where we get SNOW.

[Just try it Hippy]

What did we learn from this?

First, limp-wristed hippies will always try to stand up against someone they think they can beat.

Second, for all their alleged above average intelligence, some tree huggers fail to understand basic physics.

Third. the old stereotype of diesels being bad continues, just buy a VW Jetta then convert it to run off waste vegetable oil.

[YouMight B APriusDriver]

http://priusdriver.tumblr.com/

[truck rental]

Prius? Jetta? Taurus? they sure sounds like names of some of my favorite dinosaurs! anyhow though that riding a dinosaur is not risky? :) you need to know how to handle it! take care..