Road Rage
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At one time we lived in a suburban development not far from
the intersection of a three county roads and an interstate. You had to go
through this intersection to leave the small suburban town, there was no other
option. The traffic and repeated incidents of road rage at this intersection
were one of the reasons we eventually moved away.
In my first experience, on a clear dry summer day I had exited
one county road to turn left on another one. To do so, you cross the east bound
lane and wait in a median strip for your turn to turn left
onto the west bound lane. I am waiting my turn. The traffic is heavy, but
finally there is a long break in the closest lane and so I turn left into
it.
At the time there is no one coming in the farthest lane for
quite a distance but one minivan. I turn and proceed forward about 10
feet. Suddenly there is a blur of a vehicle to my right, then a loud squeal
of brakes and the minivan who had been WELL behind me and in the OTHER lane is
now in front of me doing 180s. The driver must have been doing at least 80-90
MPH to get to my spot that quickly and pass me in a blur. I
immediately slow down and then am forced to stop because Minivan Maniac now has
control of his car and has rushed over and parked – yes
PARKED – his car sideways in front of me. He rushes out of the car with such a
look of rage on his face, that I immediately lock my doors and roll up my
windows. I am also wishing I had a cell phone.
MiniVan Maniac – Mr. Suburban Dad in a suit with a baby seat
inside his minivan – proceeds to scream at me that I had HIT his car and
caused him to lose control of his vehicle. I am stunned. Hit his
car? In what alternate universe? In no way did I hit his car and I told
him so. He kept insisting. I kept insisting that if I’d hit him I would have
certainly FELT it and moreover, since his car was significantly larger than
mine, I would be in dire straights right now, but my car was fine. He is
SCREAMING at me that I hit his car and then proceeds to
scream that I’ve totaled it. At this point, my jaw drops open and I demand,
“Show me how your car was totaled.” He backs his car up and there is –
needless to say – not a scratch on it. I point this out. He’s still
screaming and I demand again to be shown any damage. He finally points to a very
small black mark on his car (the kind you’d get from bumping up against a
black bumper while parking) and demands that I pay for it. I told
him what he could do with his black mark, put my car into drive and drove off to
the nearest police station in case he followed me. He did not, but I tried to
avoid that intersection at that time of day for months. I realized subsequently
that what really happened was that he decided from a long
distance back to speed to pass me to make a left onto the exit ramp of the
highway and in order to do so, he had to hit his brakes hard while going at a
speed of 90+mph and had lost control of his vehicle. But then he went nutso and
was trying to blame me not only for his own poor driving but for totaling
his vehicle when there was not a scratch on it. The worst part was seeing that
baby seat in there and thinking about him driving that way with a child on
board.
RoadRage0202-07
I was in a parking lot that was large enough to warrant stop
signs. One particular stop sign was very close to a restaurant where I had
just eaten lunch--the restaurant was the last building before the parking lot
aisle. I had backed out of my parking space and I was getting ready to
drive toward the stop sign when a woman and her two children stepped out from
the restaurant, meaning to cross in front of my car. Of course I stopped,
and before they were across a woman in an SUV pulled up behind me. I was
about ten feet from the stop sign and I guess she couldn't figure out why I'd
stopped in the middle of the aisle (I drive a small car--I'm sure if she had
been paying attention she'd have seen the woman and children in front of me)
because she blasted her horn at me. I looked up, surprised, and made eye
contact with a very angry looking woman. I pointed at the woman and two
children in front of me, and averted my eyes back to the aisle, but not before I
saw her rolling her eyes in impatience. I guess I was supposed to run over
three people so she could get to the stop sign faster. Unbelievable.
RoadRage0224-07
I was leaving my son’s elementary school last year after
picking him up from Kindergarten at the end of classes. At the time we
lived in an inner city area where all the kids were within walking distance of
the school, there were no busses for this particular school. I drove, as I
was only transporting him from school to the babysitter so I could return to
work. At this time of day there were a lot of children of varying ages
walking home from school, thus good reason for multiple crossing guards, one on
every corner within a 5 block radius. I was the second car back at an
intersection not even 2 blocks from the school. We had a green light, but
the crossing guard had traffic stopped for children and parents crossing.
The little beat up Honda Civic behind me decided the rules of the road didn’t
apply to him and pulls his car up onto the sidewalk (remember, lots of kids?)
and DRIVES down the sidewalk going about 20 MPH, sideswiping his own vehicle
with multiple parking and direction road signs and proceeds past myself and the
lead car, only leaving the sidewalk are once he is clear of the intersection!
There were kids screaming and running everywhere to avoid this guy. He
didn’t get pulled over that I could see, but I’m pretty sure action was
taken since the crossing guard was yelling frantically into her walkie-talkie
and I noticed at least 2 other people on their cell phones repeating the license
numbers. I myself made a call when I got to the sitters. Thank
goodness nobody was hurt, but really, where do people get these ideas? I still
wonder what his excuse was!
RoadRage0227-07
A few years ago my younger sister was involved in a fender
bender where a young teen rear ended her at a stop light. The wasn't much
damaged so they pulled off the road to try and figure out what to do. As
both of these ladies were young and neither had any experience with accidents my
sister called home and was told to call the non-emergency police number to
report the it. My sis and this girl call in, but no one would answer
at the police station. Eventually the phone battery dies so they exchange
names and phone numbers and go home. When she got home she explained what
happened and we were astounded that the police department didn't answer the
phone. (As a note the dispatchers are infamous for getting upset if
something isn't enough of an emergency when calling 911 so
we are a bit shy in using it. I was yelled at once for trying to report a load
of retaining wall bricks dropped in the middle of the highway- a clear
emergency.)
Now the vehicle she is driving is my Dad's and she is driving
on his insurance, so he tells her she need to call this girl, get her insurance
info and then drive over to the PD and file a report. No big deal. I
volunteered to ride over with her to the PD for moral support. When we
walked into the station and requested a police officer she had to explain why
and the dispatcher smirked at her. The police officer came in and listened
to her. He then gave her the third degree over the dispatcher not
answering the non-emergency number (as if she had any control over that) and
informed her the insurance company probably won't believe her anyway. Then he
tries to convince her it wasn't in his city limits (it was).
After that he begins to try and talk her
out of filing a report. After a few minutes of this she looks at me and
asks what should she do. The cop looks at me and barks, "Stay out of
it!" I was taken aback, but answered him and informed him as my sis
had asked my opinion I was going to answer her. I told her that she was
driving her father's car, on her father's insurance and he told her to file a
report. If looks could kill I would be dead. I guess he didn't want
to do the paperwork.
After filling the report I asked him if she should have called
911 when the other number didn't answer. He said absolutely not for a
fender bender and he had to admit if the non-emergency line didn't pick up then
she would have to drive to the PD to file a report. The insurance thing was
quickly straightened out. Thankfully the other girl fully agreed with
everything that happened. I have since told this story several times and
every time I tell it to a local they tell me stories of
how they haven't been able to get a hold of the police on the non-emergency line
either. I guess they just don't answer it.
RoadRage0301-07
I always arrive at work before schedule, usually around
7:30am. At 7:25 this morning I’m on the main road to work, stopped at a red
light. The light just changes to green and I step off the brake, before the Jeep
next to me or I have a chance to step on the gas, the car behind me lays on the
horn. I look in my rearview and see this woman in a silver BMW shaking her head
and waving her hands in the “hurry up” gesture. I push on the gas; thinking
“Geez lady,!” As I’m driving I notice she switches lanes, gets behind the
Jeep, tailgates, realizes that her turn (also my turn) is coming up and switches
lanes ending up back behind me.
I make the right hand turn and figure that she will hopefully
pass me (it’s a 4 lane road), she doesn’t just continues behind me. There
are 4 stoplights on this straight road. I watch the second light turn yellow as
I’m going underneath, look behind and see Ms. BMW running it. Again she speeds
up to get right behind me, yet doesn’t pass. I finally turn into my work
parking lot and she continues on her way
RoadRage0302-07
I'm not sure if I was the victim of bad driving etiquette, or
the violator. It was summer after I graduated high school, and I had gotten a
job at the mall. I had yet to get a license, so my mother drove me. We circled
around to the back of the mall where there was one of the large parking lots,
but less crowded roads. We pulled into a double yellow line to make a turn into
the lot, and there was another car in front of us. The driver, a guy, turned
into the driveway. My mom should have waited to see if a car was coming, but she
just followed him, pretty close behind. Driving into the lot, there was a big
ditch and a big bump, so the guy slowed down. We saw a car headed for us, and we
were still in the middle of the road, so I guess she panicked or something
because she honked at him. Understandably the guy got upset. My mom just waved
at him and said, "Keep going!" He got angry and shrugged his
shoulders, like 'What do you want?' and flipped her off. So of course she
flipped HIM off. I was SO embarrassed! I doubt she even knows what giving the
middle finger means, except that it's not nice. It was so humiliating for me! I
wanted to duck my head so no one could see me. I was also a little upset with
her as well. Nice going mom, you set such great examples. "Friendship is
born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What?! You, too? I thought
I was the only one.'"
RoadRage0311-07
I work in a government building that shares a parking garage
with a very large city concert hall. I park on the second level (employees only)
and at the end of the day I have to pass through the entrance to the first level
(visitors only) to leave. One night, I guess there was some concert going on,
and there was a huge line of cars waiting to get into the first level. I was on
my way down the ramp and had to cross through the line of cars to get out to the
road. There was a traffic cop there, waving people on. I waited.. and waited..
and waited!! Four cars went through into the first level parking garage, ever so
slowly, because the man there had to get the parking fee for everyone. Not once
did this traffic cop lady even attempt to hold back a car so I could simply
leave the parking garage.
But here's the actual reason I'm telling you this story: A
guy, with a guy pal in his car and two female friends, sees me waiting there to
get out, as I'm trying to get the traffic cop's attention. He says this (I can
read lips, anyway it wasn't hard to read what he said): "Watch this, this will
piss her off," and pulls right in front of me and just parks there. I
honked at the traffic girl and said "YOU WANNA GIVE ME A HAND HERE?"
She made the rude moron wait on the side of the road until a space was cleared
and I could finally leave the garage! I bet the girls in that car were real
impressed by that young man's show of common courtesy.
RoadRage0326-07
I came to the end of a nice country road, where it met the
highway, only to find an elderly chap parked right across the road, sleeping in
his car. At the time, I was about 16 years old, and simply didn't know what to
do. I honked a little at him. He lifted his head up, did a sort of
"Baaaah!" hand wave and grunt at me, and put his head down on his
chest again. Confused, I pulled around him and left. If I had known better, I'd
have taken down his license number and driven to the nearby cop station. That
guy didn't know where he was!
RoadRage0326-07
One of my biggest pet peeves is tailgating, which is also
(unfortunately) quite common. My drive includes a couple rather curvy roads, and
the fact is you just can't take all those curves at full speed without crossing
into the oncoming lane (which is also, unfortunately, quite common here). Once,
a pickup truck drove very close to my car with its headlights blaring and I
slowed down to signal that he was too close, and also because it was difficult
to see with his headlights blinding me (even with mirrors turned away). I think
he honked at me, and he flashed his lights. I wasn't creeping along; I just
refuse to zip around curves in near-darkness when it's entirely possible
there'll be another vehicle coming, perhaps partly on my side of the road. I am
trying to be less rattled by the plethora of tailgaters and line-crossers so I
don't act in a way that encourages them.
RoadRage0504-07
This incident happened to me last Summer during the
ubiquitous road construction season (our state has two seasons - Winter and Road
Construction). I was driving home from work, which involved getting onto
an interstate highway in the midst of a construction zone. Being rush hour
traffic, it was always difficult to merge onto the highway even though traffic
is only (supposed to be) going 40 mph. There was a long line of us waiting to
merge from the on ramp and a young man in an SUV (SUV moron from here on out)
was directly ahead of me. I could see that the traffic on the interstate had a
break in it so I merged onto the interstate, leaving plenty of room for SUV
moron to also merge onto the road.
Well, for whatever road rage reason, SUV moron saw me get onto
the interstate before him and must have felt I was not going to allow him onto
the road because he turns to look at me and takes time to flip me the bird. How
lovely. I motion that he is also supposed to be getting onto the
interstate as there is plenty of room for him to merge. Well, as far as I'm
concerned that is the end of it - we are both now on the interstate.
But oh no, SUV moron is so upset by my actions - giving him
plenty of room to get onto the freeway?? - that he now starts harassing me by
cutting in front of me and then slowing way down forcing me to slam on my
brakes. I change lanes and attempt to speed up to the speed limit - he jumps in
front of me again and slams on his brakes forcing me to slam on mine. I change
lanes back to the far right (there are 3 lanes of travel) and try to just get
away from this moron, but he comes back across in front of me a third time. I
was really starting to get upset by this time - I drive a sedan and this fellow
is playing chicken with me in a big SUV. I could not see a good way out of this
situation or so I thought. Also, there is plenty of other traffic that is being
affected by his actions - I am trying not to rear-end him or to be rear-ended by
some other innocent driver.
So this has been going on for about a mile or so of freeway
and suddenly I see a semi coming up along side me. Obviously this trucker could
see what had been transpiring (it is a long straight stretch of freeway) and he
gets his big rig up along side me. I quickly change lanes as to be behind
the semi to avoid SUV moron. The semi driver then gets next to SUV moron and
sticks there - matching the SUV's speed - until the next available exit (another
mile or so down the road). The semi driver then quickly changes lanes forcing
the SUV to exit the freeway at the exit. I don't know if that was the exit SUV
moron wanted but he took it and I was able to safely continue my journey home. I
was quite glad to have been rescued by a truck driver - even if what he did was
probably a driving faux pas as well.
RoadRage0518-07
This story is not as terrible as some, but ended with lovely
karma biting the offender in the behind and it made me laugh. I was a
fairly new driver with only my permit, driving to my community college with my
dad in the passenger seat. At this point in my driving, I was confident
enough to take on the freeways but still very cautious. The speed limit
was 70 and as So Cal drivers tend to take speed limits as suggestions the
traffic (light at the time) was traveling between 70 and 80. I was
hovering at about 73 in the fast lane of the two lane highway, nobody directly
in front of me, nobody directly behind me.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a man speeds up behind me and begins tailgating.
Technically I'm doing nothing wrong driving the speed limit, and as I said I
was even a little over it, but for the jerk behind me that wasn't good enough.
There were a few cars in the other lane preventing him from immediately passing
me, so I watched in my mirror as he would aggressively get real close, then
back off a tiny bit, then threaten to eat my bumper again, all while making
frustrated faces.
Finally the other lane cleared and the jerk literally floored it around me
and over the hill. My estimate was he had to be doing 80 or more.
I, in the meantime had edged up to 75 to keep him from getting too stupid
behind me. I adjusted my speed back to legal and looked in my mirror
just in time to see a cruiser pull up behind me. I couldn't help
grinning as I saw him pull around me as well and flick on his lights. I
had a private little laugh to myself as I crested the hill myself just in time
to see the officer walking to the window of the jerk's car. Some people
need to take a chill pill and learn how to pass appropriately, so hopefully
that driver will think twice (although this being California, I'm not holding
my breath).
RoadRage0520-07
Page Last Updated September 18, 2008
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