[1] With the Peterbilt's front bumper now hard up against the Impala's bumber, the trucker began to swerve, sweeping the car back and forth in front of it. Ahead on a steep hill, Eck saw another tractor-trailer moving slowly in the right lane. He could visualize what would happen next. The Peterbilt was pushing him toward the rear of the other truck. The gap between the two tractor-trailers and the powerless Impala was closing fast.

[2] I'm going to die, Eck thought. He couldn't let himself be crushed, but how could he escape? He checked the rearview mirror; there was traffic in the merge and right lanes, but the left lane was clear. Eck gripped the door handle. Before he hit that truck, he would pop the door and bail out. Then the sheer desperation of the idea seized him. If he survived hitting the road at 40 m.p.h., the Peterbilt might still run over him. But at least there was a chance he'd survive the nightmare. Staying in the car, Eck believed, was certain death.

[2] The truck ahead loomed larger. Eck's fingers twitched on the door handle. Ten seconds, nine, eight . . . Suddenly his attention was drawn to a flash of light speeding past on the right.

[3] Trooper Ulrich had broken free of the traffic and shot up the roadway. He saw the 18-wheeler, the Impala in front of it. Ulrich raced past and flagged the vehicles over to the side of the road. The truck braked and the Impala drifted to a stop. Ulrich got out of his patrol car. The idling truck's engine growled like a beast struggling against restraints.

[4] As he cautiously approached the Peterbilt, the trooper saw that the driver was a slight, 65-year-old man with thinning white hair. "What's going on?" Ulrich demanded.

[5] James Trimble was shaking with rage. "This guy cut me off." Then he added in a hot surge of anger, "So I hit his car to get him out of my way."

[6] Ulrich later determined that Trimble had smashed and pushed Eck for 12 miles up I-83. This outburst of uncontrolled road rage lasted more than 20 minutes.

[7] Trimble was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and numerous driving offenses. The trucker pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault and six lesser charges, agreeing to undergo psychological evaluation and to surrender forever his commercial driver's license.

[8] Trimble declined Reader's Digest's request for an interview. But at his March 2001 sentencing, he claimed Eck repeatedly cut in front of him and slammed on his brakes as if intent on forcing him to hit him. He also said he called for assistance on his CB radio, and that he wasn't aware Eck's car was disabled. Trimble was sentenced to a prison term with a maximum nearly two years.

[9] Despite the physical and psychological battering Michael Eck endured on I-83, he gave up his forklift job and now drives tractor-trailers. "I often see motorists driving in ways I consider inappropriate," he says. "But I would never dream of taking vigilante justice, because I've relived the nightmare of what happened to me a thousand times."