Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - How would TFPers have handled this v. road rage incident.

Borla · 12-13-2007, 10:04 PM

This evening, my wife and I were on our way home from a town about 10-12 miles from the small town we live in. The route is a straight shot down a two-lane state highway, with few cross roads, and not a lot of traffic at night. I am going about 60 (55 limit) and I catch up to a line of about four cars that are doing maybe 5-10 mph under the limit. Just as I roll up on them, we come to an intersection where another state highway is, and two cars (the one directly in front of me, and also the second car in the group) pull into the middle (turn) lane and make a left. From there it is maybe 4 miles to my town, and there is no traffic in sight, so I pull into the oncoming lane and pass the minivan in front of me that seems more than happy to go 50mph.

As I pass him, he starts flipping his brights on and off like crazy at me. I look down, nope, my brights aren't on, so I wasn't blinding him. I had only been behind him very briefly, since there had been a car between us until just a few hundred yards back, so I know he couldn't have realistically thought I was tailgating him before I passed him. But, the car in front of him was going slow too, so within 1/4 mile or so I passed that one too, and was on my merry way. 1/2 mile or a mile later, I notice in my rearview mirror that he has passed that car too, and is again directly behind me, albeit several hundred yards. Again, he is flashing his brights. As I approach the town I live in, I decided to turn a few streets before mine, just because something told me he might follow me into town if he saw where I turned. Sure enough, he turns. I turn again, twice, and he turns behind me.

By now I'm sure it's not random. I'm irritated, but not angry. I have no idea why he is following me, but I'm only about three blocks from my house, and don't want him to know where I live. The last thing I feel like dealing with is vandalism or some idiot trying to pick a fight over something retarded. So I whip a u-turn to see how serious he is about bugging me. He veers into my lane like he wants to hit me head on, and starts screaming out his window. Now I'm mad.

I whip back around a couple blocks later and decide that I'm going to call and report him, and follow him. He heads out of town, and I follow him from maybe 15-20 car lengths. I assume he realizes he can't outrun me in a beat up 10 year old Nissan Quest, so he starts driving EXTREMELY slow, like 25-30mph on open rural highways. That's ok, I'm on the phone with the po-po, and he's just giving them time to catch up. I follow him 5-6 miles, and the dispatch asks if I want to pull over, let a deputy catch up to me, and write up a complaint, because we are getting near the county line. I say "no, I would rather they pull him over first, then I'll sign a complaint". She asks me if I am willing to do that, and I say I am.

Finally the county sheriff rolls up on me (while I'm still on the phone with dispatch) just after we crossed the county line, and are entering the outskirts of the next town. The guy jumps on the interstate at the edge of town, I follow, and the sherriff's deputy follows me. Next thing I know, another LEO rolls up, this one from the city that we are just on the edge of (interstate cuts through the edge of town). The city cop gets behind the minivan, and now the sherriff's deputy zooms around me. One gets beside the guy, and one gets behind him, and the city cop lights him up.

The guy pulls over on the interstate. The two cop cars pull over behind him, and I pull over behind them. I get out of my car, and walk up to the passenger side of the sherriff's car (the city cop was up at the van already), where two deputies were waiting. I explain to one of them the whole story, as the other one goes up and searches the guy's van. The deputy tells me I did the right thing by not letting the guy follow me home, and by not trying to retaliate to him. Pretty soon I'm laughing and joking with the two county cops (while the city cop was still up at the van), talking about people we know, where we grew up, etc. (Basically I'm selling myself as a credible witness and a decent guy. )

After a couple of minutes the city cop comes back and asks me what happened. I tell him the same story. He goes "That is basically exactly what this guy is saying, except he says you were tailgating him before you passed him, and he thought you stepped on it too hard and were racing by him too fast when you passed him." I'm thinking "ok, I guess I shouldn't speed up as I pass you while you go 10 under, eh? ", but I just explain to the cop that the tailgating part is false because I wasn't even behind him but for literally 3-5 seconds before I passed him, that another car had been between us but pulled into the turn lane. The cop says the guy thought I was some punk kid, and he was going to follow me home and tell my parents about how I was driving.

At this point I have all three cops standing alongside the interstate with me, and even the other guy has basically corroborated my story, even to the part about swerving into my lane like he was going to hit me head on. I tell the cops that my main issues are 1) I didn't do anything to this guy to warrant him flashing brights and following me home. I tell them that I know when I do something annoying like leaving my brights on, tailgating, or passing too close, and I did none of those things. I tell them that if I had, I would've just stepped on it, lost him, and went on my way. 2) This guy swerved straight at me head on, after following me home, while my wife was in the car. Not cool, and could classify as reckless driving. And 3) I'm stubborn. They laughed at that one.

The cops tell me that it sounds like one big misunderstanding, the guy is sorry for all the trouble he caused, and that they've read him the riot act for getting himself involved in something that could've ended very badly. The cops tell me that, at this point it's up to me if I want to file a formal complaint and make them write it all up, or if we all just leave and let it be. I tell them that if he wants to come back and apologize to me face to face, I won't file a complaint. So they go ask him to get out and come back to where we are standing, and he does. He's probably 55-60, maybe 5'6" or 5'7", and half my size. He says that he is sorry for everything, that when I stepped on it to go around him he was mad and thought I was some punk kid, and he decided he was going to teach me a lesson. The cop says to the guy "Look at him (referring to me), it's a good thing he's a nice guy. Think of what could've happened." (Basically I could've pounded him into old man hamburger, or could've had a gun or something.) So the guy shakes my hand, says he's sorry again, and I tell him apology accepted. The cops ask if we are good, and I say we are. They make a few other comments to me about saying I did the right thing not to let him follow me home, and by calling them.

I walk back to my car, get in, and tell my wife what happened. She starts laughing and says "when the guy came walking back, I just KNEW you were making him apologize to you" . She got a kick out of the whole thing, I mainly think she was happy that I've outgrown my days of trying to exercise vigilante justice on road ragers. I have to admit though, that while we were following him, I was seriously hoping he had a warrant out or had drugs in the car, just so I could have the pleasure of sending him to jail. But, since he was decent enough to apologize (and actually sounded sincere/respectful about it), I guess all's well that ends well.

Anyway, that's my excitement for the night. Unfortunately I don't think it'll make the next episode of COPS.

Cliffnotes - Road rager tries to follow me home. I pull a u-turn, get behind him, and call the po-po. He gets pulled over and faces the choice of having a reckless driving complaint filed against him, or coming over to apologize to me. No one goes home in a body bag.

12-13-2007, 10:04 PM	#1 (permalink)
Borla Junkie	How would TFPers have handled this v. road rage incident. This evening, my wife and I were on our way home from a town about 10-12 miles from the small town we live in. The route is a straight shot down a two-lane state highway, with few cross roads, and not a lot of traffic at night. I am going about 60 (55 limit) and I catch up to a line of about four cars that are doing maybe 5-10 mph under the limit. Just as I roll up on them, we come to an intersection where another state highway is, and two cars (the one directly in front of me, and also the second car in the group) pull into the middle (turn) lane and make a left. From there it is maybe 4 miles to my town, and there is no traffic in sight, so I pull into the oncoming lane and pass the minivan in front of me that seems more than happy to go 50mph. As I pass him, he starts flipping his brights on and off like crazy at me. I look down, nope, my brights aren't on, so I wasn't blinding him. I had only been behind him very briefly, since there had been a car between us until just a few hundred yards back, so I know he couldn't have realistically thought I was tailgating him before I passed him. But, the car in front of him was going slow too, so within 1/4 mile or so I passed that one too, and was on my merry way. 1/2 mile or a mile later, I notice in my rearview mirror that he has passed that car too, and is again directly behind me, albeit several hundred yards. Again, he is flashing his brights. As I approach the town I live in, I decided to turn a few streets before mine, just because something told me he might follow me into town if he saw where I turned. Sure enough, he turns. I turn again, twice, and he turns behind me. By now I'm sure it's not random. I'm irritated, but not angry. I have no idea why he is following me, but I'm only about three blocks from my house, and don't want him to know where I live. The last thing I feel like dealing with is vandalism or some idiot trying to pick a fight over something retarded. So I whip a u-turn to see how serious he is about bugging me. He veers into my lane like he wants to hit me head on, and starts screaming out his window. Now I'm mad. I whip back around a couple blocks later and decide that I'm going to call and report him, and follow him. He heads out of town, and I follow him from maybe 15-20 car lengths. I assume he realizes he can't outrun me in a beat up 10 year old Nissan Quest, so he starts driving EXTREMELY slow, like 25-30mph on open rural highways. That's ok, I'm on the phone with the po-po, and he's just giving them time to catch up. I follow him 5-6 miles, and the dispatch asks if I want to pull over, let a deputy catch up to me, and write up a complaint, because we are getting near the county line. I say "no, I would rather they pull him over first, then I'll sign a complaint". She asks me if I am willing to do that, and I say I am. Finally the county sheriff rolls up on me (while I'm still on the phone with dispatch) just after we crossed the county line, and are entering the outskirts of the next town. The guy jumps on the interstate at the edge of town, I follow, and the sherriff's deputy follows me. Next thing I know, another LEO rolls up, this one from the city that we are just on the edge of (interstate cuts through the edge of town). The city cop gets behind the minivan, and now the sherriff's deputy zooms around me. One gets beside the guy, and one gets behind him, and the city cop lights him up. The guy pulls over on the interstate. The two cop cars pull over behind him, and I pull over behind them. I get out of my car, and walk up to the passenger side of the sherriff's car (the city cop was up at the van already), where two deputies were waiting. I explain to one of them the whole story, as the other one goes up and searches the guy's van. The deputy tells me I did the right thing by not letting the guy follow me home, and by not trying to retaliate to him. Pretty soon I'm laughing and joking with the two county cops (while the city cop was still up at the van), talking about people we know, where we grew up, etc. (Basically I'm selling myself as a credible witness and a decent guy. ) After a couple of minutes the city cop comes back and asks me what happened. I tell him the same story. He goes "That is basically exactly what this guy is saying, except he says you were tailgating him before you passed him, and he thought you stepped on it too hard and were racing by him too fast when you passed him." I'm thinking "ok, I guess I shouldn't speed up as I pass you while you go 10 under, eh? ", but I just explain to the cop that the tailgating part is false because I wasn't even behind him but for literally 3-5 seconds before I passed him, that another car had been between us but pulled into the turn lane. The cop says the guy thought I was some punk kid, and he was going to follow me home and tell my parents about how I was driving. At this point I have all three cops standing alongside the interstate with me, and even the other guy has basically corroborated my story, even to the part about swerving into my lane like he was going to hit me head on. I tell the cops that my main issues are 1) I didn't do anything to this guy to warrant him flashing brights and following me home. I tell them that I know when I do something annoying like leaving my brights on, tailgating, or passing too close, and I did none of those things. I tell them that if I had, I would've just stepped on it, lost him, and went on my way. 2) This guy swerved straight at me head on, after following me home, while my wife was in the car. Not cool, and could classify as reckless driving. And 3) I'm stubborn. They laughed at that one. The cops tell me that it sounds like one big misunderstanding, the guy is sorry for all the trouble he caused, and that they've read him the riot act for getting himself involved in something that could've ended very badly. The cops tell me that, at this point it's up to me if I want to file a formal complaint and make them write it all up, or if we all just leave and let it be. I tell them that if he wants to come back and apologize to me face to face, I won't file a complaint. So they go ask him to get out and come back to where we are standing, and he does. He's probably 55-60, maybe 5'6" or 5'7", and half my size. He says that he is sorry for everything, that when I stepped on it to go around him he was mad and thought I was some punk kid, and he decided he was going to teach me a lesson. The cop says to the guy "Look at him (referring to me), it's a good thing he's a nice guy. Think of what could've happened." (Basically I could've pounded him into old man hamburger, or could've had a gun or something.) So the guy shakes my hand, says he's sorry again, and I tell him apology accepted. The cops ask if we are good, and I say we are. They make a few other comments to me about saying I did the right thing not to let him follow me home, and by calling them. I walk back to my car, get in, and tell my wife what happened. She starts laughing and says "when the guy came walking back, I just KNEW you were making him apologize to you" . She got a kick out of the whole thing, I mainly think she was happy that I've outgrown my days of trying to exercise vigilante justice on road ragers. I have to admit though, that while we were following him, I was seriously hoping he had a warrant out or had drugs in the car, just so I could have the pleasure of sending him to jail. But, since he was decent enough to apologize (and actually sounded sincere/respectful about it), I guess all's well that ends well. Anyway, that's my excitement for the night. Unfortunately I don't think it'll make the next episode of COPS. Cliffnotes - Road rager tries to follow me home. I pull a u-turn, get behind him, and call the po-po. He gets pulled over and faces the choice of having a reckless driving complaint filed against him, or coming over to apologize to me. No one goes home in a body bag. __________________ Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde!!!!