Any way to break out of parent div attributes in IE with absolute position?

Hi all, nice to find an active forum. Have a unique situation for y’all.

Basically the structure is so:

[B][COLOR=Red]<div style=”width: 500px;” id=”container_div_with_inconsistent_naming”>

<!– stuff I can modify –>
<div style=”position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; background: red;”>
blahblahblah
</div>
<!– /stuff I can modify –>

other stuff
</div>[/COLOR][/B]

I want the red stripe to span 100% of the browser window, but in IE it is accepting the attribute of the parent div and only spanning 500px. Firefox renders suitably.

Caveat #1: I cannot modify the first div
Caveat #2: The first div ID has an inconsistent naming convention across pages, and various widths assigned to it, so I cannot close the div before my red stripe and reopen the div with the same ID. The content in “other stuff” is reliant on the attributes set by the container div.

Any help would be appreciated, I’ve been searching forever.

thanks
mike

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