Road Rage

Thought this would be an interesting to talk about. Road Rage stories we have personally seen/experienced. Over the past few years of driving I've noticed increasingly bad behavior on the road and last August, I was on the receiving end of it.

I was driving through a nearby town, headed back home after returning bottles at a redemption center. When I nearly collided with a young woman. She was sitting at the exit of a parking lot for a Dunkin Donuts, and I saw her turn her head and look at my car approaching. As I am quickly approaching her, she decides its a great idea to pull out. She accelerates fast into the turning lane and flies into the left hand lane where I am driving. I slam on the brakes to slow down and I beep my horn. We both accelerate to the speed limit and then she break checks me, all while glaring at me in her rear view mirror. I thought that was odd considering she was the one who cut me off, but she must have been having a really bad day and is mad at the world. We continue driving for another 5 minutes and come to an intersection with a red light. We are the only cars there. She is in the left hand lane but stopped about 15 feet before the white line. With how far back her car is, she will not trip the sensor for the light to change. Not thinking too much of it, I pull into the right lane because I will be turning right at the next block. As I drive past her she rolls her window down and screams out at me "hey ***hole, you need to to slow down when you see I'm trying to merge". I ignore her, don't even look in her direction, and pull up the white line. She becomes even more furious that I didn't acknowledge her, so she pulls up next to my car, and screams even louder "***hole I got your plate number. Im going to follow you home and kick your ***". I think to myself, "she is going to be unpleasantly surprised when she meets the business end of Mr. Glock 17". I still ignore her but I briefly glanced over to get a description of what she looks like. It had been almost 5 minutes since she cut me off and break checked me, and she was still furious about it! This girl must have some serious anger issues! Talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time. At this point, I am clearly not going to drive home with her near me. Not many people actually know how to look up a vehicle's plate number, let alone look it up for free. So I'm not giving her the chance to follow me home. I took note earlier that she was driving a POS Kia. The vehicle I was in had a V6 engine. I knew I could easily outrun and evade her even though we were in a residential neighborhood. Thankfully the light turned green within a couple seconds, and we both go to drive through the intersection. I however make an abrupt hard right and speed down a side street. I pull into a nursing home and position my car so it is hidden among the other cars in the parking lot, but I can still see the main road. I waited there for a few minutes and she chose not to turn around and follow me. Seeing as I wasn't being followed, I headed home but drove an alternate way back. Once I got home I contacted my local PD and they sent an officer over. I complain from time to time about paying high property taxes, but its moments like this I am grateful for the incredibly short police response time. Took approximately 2 minutes for an officer to arrive. I explained the incident and gave them the girl's plate number. I said I found it peculiar that someone who had 5 minutes to cool down from being upset over something I didn't even do, started right back up into a full rage the moment I was near them. And then threatened to follow me home and physically attack me. The officer ran the plate and read about the girl. He told me I don't have much to worry about. Didn't go into many details but said she sounds like someone who is all talk. So I got the impression she didn't have a prior criminal record. Nevertheless the officer told me to call them if I spot her car on my street or if it is parked in front of my house. I knew there wasn't much that could be done, but I still wanted the incident on police record, in the event something did happen in the future.

Now some of you are probably wondering, "But DeathMerchant, you have an entire arsenal at your disposal, why are you worried about some short, 20 something year old girl?" Well if she decided to show up at my house by herself, bringing a boyfriend, or other family members, some of whom could have been ready to start a fight or possibly armed. I wanted it on record that she had previously threatened me. It would protect me from a legal standpoint if I was forced into a situation where I had to use lethal force.

Didn't sleep well that night as I kept replaying the entire incident in my head. And my situational awareness was way up over the next few weeks. But thankfully nothing ever came of it and I never saw that car again.

I've seen drivers do some weird stuff on the road before but nothing quite to this level.

So what's the worst Road Rage incident you have ever had?