Ugh. Can't sleep. So I figured I'd ask a question about something that happened earlier...

Random...

This has been playing on my mind all day.

To preface, the area that I live is a more rural area and the drivers do a lot more reckless driving on this side. And 18wheelers frequent this side of the city. I've seen situations where 18 wheelers have run suvs off of the rodes into ditches or forcing people to switch lanes to avoid being hit.

To the point, there's a stop sign just before the service road and I was eyeing traffic to watch for flow and open space all while waiting my turn at the stop sign. To the very far left I see an 18 wheeler approaching otherwise, I see no other traffic and I'm also watching for the cars ahead of me who might also turn right to get on the highway. Once I make my way through the stop sign I have about a quarter of a mile to the highway entrance and maybe half a mile once on the freeway in the merging lane...as I am turning right through the stop sign, I look in my rear view mirror to watch for the 18wheeler. They are still well behind so I was able to pickup to speed to 65 (gradually) from making a right turn and then onto the entrance ramp. Of course I'm being cautious as the highway has the right of way. I merge onto the freeway, no problem. The 18wheeler switched lanes to the left just as I reached the entrance ramp...I stayed in the right. Now, we're about 2 miles away from the entrance ramp and I see this same 18wheeler awfully close to my car on my left. They were switching lanes back into the right lane but almost side swiped us and forcing me to immediately move to emergency lane and slam on my breaks to avoid being hit but also avoid hitting a concrete barricade.

I was pissed but mainly confused. Did I not time it right? Did I cut them off and didn't realize it? But why had so much time passed before I saw the 18wheeler again when they were switching lanes?

My question is, was I in the wrong? I'm trying to be as detailed as possible. it's been on my mind non-stop. When I had to switch lanes into the emergency lanes, I saw other drivers throwing their hands up in the air and my initial thought was they agreed the other driver was wrong but later in the day I then wondered if they did that because I was in the wrong?.

All that matters is everyone is okay. Thank God but idk...it's not sitting well with me. I also have a dash cam but unfortunately it only records in front view and not rear view.

My only other assumption is I merged correctly but maybe they didn't time it correctly when switching back into the right lane. I was well ahead of the 18 wheeler. There was reasonable distance otherwise I would have slowed down and merged behind them but doing so would have brought me to a complete stop.

Idk.

Thoughts??