I was a few minutes late to work, driving along and a car pulls out ahead of me going pretty slow. I ride up to about 10 feet behind (annoyed, but so far nothing out of the ordinary). Car stops in the middle of the road. I go to pass, turns out driver is trying to get out but I don’t really care, I have to get to work.
I go about 20 feet further towards an intersection and the guy comes u p behind me weaving erratically and purposely bumps my SUV from behind. Again, super annoyed but I have an old beater 130k+ mile SUV for kayaking and such so this isn’t the first scratch (pretty minor) and 1) I still have to get to work 2) I don’t want a long drawn out episode waiting to call police and 3) it turns out the guy (about 30-35 years old) is now trying to get out of his car to fight with what turns out to be his Mom is yelling at him out the other window to get in the car. I am not stopping in the middle of an intersection for what at this point is definitely going to be a fight so I just say f* it and go to work.
Well the guy still wants to fight so now he’s weaving all over and we come to a light and I leave about 20 feet to the car ahead and I’m in the left lane in case this guy produces a gun. He jumps out (about 6’6 so he must be from AF) with his Mom chasing him and yells something about his Mom in the car, us needing to fight and that I’m a pussy (fair enough) but there is no way I’m showing up to work with my face all bloody and clothes torn because I got in a fight on the way there over traffic. Plus he’s big and I don’t like my odds so he might be right. I opt to leave the doors locked and point out that he hit my car with his Mom on board.
Guy comes in swinging and I got the window up so he’s just beating on the window. At this point I actually rolled my eyes at him and the guy stopped. I could see on his face that he’d hurt his hand so I started to laugh, he called me a pussy again and got in the car, light turned green and I left with no further issues. I’ve now had this scenario happen to me twice in my life (once about seven years ago). Weird.
Emotionally, my reaction is typically that I need to start carrying again because people are lunatics, and what if he’d had a gun, but mentally it makes me realize how bad of an idea concealed carry can be by injecting even the possiblity of a gun into those sorts of escalated situations.
I feel bad about being involved in a “hit and run” even though I was hit, but self preservation just seemed like the smarter option in this case. I figured I’d float it for feedback because it’s such an odd scenario and I’m not really sure what the best course of action really was. Also, the guy did not share the same ancestral roots as the examples you’re citing.
I remember this one time where a drunk dude was trying to start a fight, for some weird reason I couldn’t stop laughing, by laughing I mean in a lunatic way.It was weird.
He pulled out in front of me and I did tailgate in response (about 5 seconds of tailgating). He continued to slow down to a stop, so I went around at which point he went full on agressive. So I’m not claiming that this all was completely for no reason. (Although it was not aggressive tailgaiting and I’m really going out on a limb to balance blame here.)
But the fact that his response was to immediately stop and get out of the car and then rearend my vehicle before jumping out again and punching my window is indicative of the level of rationality I was dealing with.
I recently had a crazy person do something similar. Stupidly I opened my window too much . Then i Realized it was just much better to let he dbag win the verbal agreement because i was in a more vulnerable spot. my only takeaway is that these incidences are good reminders to always keep your guard up
you should have been a real dick and pulled out your cell phone to record the tantrum.
although that could induce two very different responses – either they realize they could end up on youtube and back down, or it pushes them to such a state of rage they break through the window and choke you to death.
reminds me of a time i drove home 90 miles after a conference and an extended happy hour. on the highway this car full of kids swerved towards me from the other lane almost hitting me. i honked for like 30 seconds straight while i boxed them in behind the car they were trying to pass. then they got behind me a put on the high beams. i slowed down to about 30 mph in the middle of the highway. they switched lanes and gunned it past me, then about 1,000 feet down the road they were pulled over by the cops. i think they were upset with the outcome.
You will break most bones in your arm by punching through a windshield.It can be fun to watch the guy breaking his hands like that.But he could be a total psycho and pull a gun out which is a completely different scenario.
You should report this to the police. The last thing you need is for him to report first or some third party witness call and say they saw you flee an accident and the cops show up at your work and arrest you. I’m serious, go report this.
I had an interesting commute today too. Things got out of control last night with a well worn date from Craigslist. Her ad said she was 30 but I’m thinking 60. She asked me to call her 'mom", which was weird, but for $17, you can’t be choosy. Anyhow, as I’m driving her back to the group home, some dick with a 26.2 sticker in his window won’t get off my ass, so I tap the breaks a bit. He’s furious and pulls out and around me. A while later I tapped his bumper and he won’t even fight me. i took a few swings at the window and all he did was laugh. Just a gigantic pussy. So my date is upset and this guy is laughing and now I’ve got to get my hand checked out. What a morning.
I believe the other driver is correct BS. At the point he said he needed to fight you, you had a legal obligation to fight. Much like a duel in olden times.
For real though a fight? What is this middle school? Guy seems like he has a screw loose, you made the right choice. There is nothing to be gained by fighting the guy, suppose you get beat up and need medical attention. Suppose you beat him up and he takes you to court. Everyone gets a little road rage from time to time when people cut each other off & tailgate but that is something else.
