just to preface, i’m not somebody who gets in the left lane and drives at or near the speed limit and stays there. be it a good or bad habit, i habitually stay around 9mph above the speed limit depending on where im driving and existing speed limits

so last night i was driving from my hospital 2nd shift from clyde to AVL. lots of truck traffic on the right. i moved into the left lane to pass by, again going about 9-10 over the speed limit.

all of a sudden, this white/silver (?) sedan vehicle (dunno the make - maybe a toyota or honda)? with very bright white headlights comes speeding up behind me. i’ve had my share of tailgaters, and i usually just merge right and let them go so i can return to passing the big guys. but this guy was not even feet away from me- i’m talking he was INCHES behind me. as in i literally could not step off the gas or he was going to hit me. this psycho was about to fucking mow me down.

again, i cannot brake or let off the gas. i have my music on and can still hear his engine roaring behind me. i can barely see because his lights are lighting up my car’s interior more than my overheads ever could. i’m stuck between semi after semi on my right all close up behind each other and i have this crazy idiot behind me that’s got me up to 95mph. i’m terrified. i can’t reliably zipper merge right because of how fast we are going. i drive a shitty little 2016 kia and a crash at this speed would leave me and my car legitimately crushed into a cube. i was praying that there was a cop or highway patrol SOMEWHERE to save me from this crazy idiot so i could safely pull off or merge but there was no one.

finally after what seemed like hours, there was a break between semis and cars on my right. it was absolutely way too close and i was going way too fast to comfortably (or safely) merge, but i swerved over to the right and slammed on my brakes to keep from hitting the car in front of me and the psycho sped off even FASTER. again, my speed toward the end was 95.

i hope this person had a sincere emergency to warrant going that fast and putting me in that situation, but they didn’t have hazards or anything on, so i can’t tell.

in the future, what can one do in that situation? how can it be prevented? it was legitimately terrifying and i don’t know if i did something wrong or if this person was just insane.

EDIT: i’m literally an idiot i mean I-40E 😭

EDIT #2: thank you all for the insight! i realize in retrospect that speeding up was definitely very irresponsible but was really just the result of me panicking. i’ve only been driving for about a year and some change, and so i’m still kind of timid. kind of a weird situation where i mostly had to teach myself, absent parents and all with little to no guidance. i’ll definitely take future advice and i just flicked on siri so i could call someone if need be!