Have you ever been involved in a road rage incident? (sedan, brakes)

[GeoffD]

I once told an old couple that snaked the parking spot I'd been patiently waiting for that they'd find four valve stems taped to their windshield if they didn't move their car. Not quite the Kathy Bates parking lot scene in Fried Green Tomatoes but I was pretty pissed.

I called 911 on my cell phone once when some kids were playing pass/slow to 20 mph games with me on a 2 lane road. They went off in handcuffs with a driving to endanger citation and their car got towed. They plea bargained so I didn't have to show up in court as a witness.

[Nov3]

yes. It was due to my pulling out without looking both ways...you bet I felt like crap....The guy immediately tailed me...honked profusely, and when I pulled into a public shopping center, he immediately ran over to my car, banged on the window and ranted at me...for cutting him off.

I was terrified....He was a rather large man and not a soul in the area seemed to give a hoot about this guys antic towards me. So I told him to step back, that I needed to get out of the car. I grabbed my phone, started dialing 911 and asked the guy if he wanted to file a report?

He said, mame, all you need to do is apologize for your action! So I did. As if I felt anything BUT remorse to begin with. But dang, his rage was seriously in need of a re check....

People in my town are high strung and think nothing of poppin someone if they so much as wink!

[j000z11]

One time I turned into a Gas station and another car followed me and parked next to me. Out of no where he said I was driving recklessly, even though I had the right of way, and told me he was a police officer. He mentioned t hat he would've toke me to jail if he had uniform on... IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? TAKE ME TO JAIL? Laugh my a$$ OFF.
I just said ok and walked away.

[yellowsnow]

H and I were at a Renaissance Fair once and it started pouring. Of course, a lot of people at once go to their cars to leave. The parking was in a huge field and wasn't designed well and then people started getting stuck in the mud. It was total gridlock and no one could move. One guy close to us went totally berserk and started ramming the cars close to him. Luckily the police arrived before he actually hurt someone but he damaged about 8 cars during his temper tantrum. It ended up taking about 3 hours to get out of the parking lot because of the arrest and getting tow trucks for all the stuck/damaged vehicles.

We were already soaking wet so we decided to just take the first empty parking space we could find and go back in and see the rest of the fair. It was a smart decision. It was much less crowded when we left and they had put down straw in all the muddy places.

[annieosage]

Yes. Taking my daughter to school last April. Always went the same way. I looked to the left which is a signal up at the corner. Light was green no cars coming. Looked to the right. That light was red with 2 cars waiting- both white.

I turned left and got into the right lane and heard this loud noise coming up behind me. Suddenly there was a guy on a street bike at my window. I asked my daughter where did he come from?? I looked over and and waived while mouthing I'm sorry even though it was not my fault. He was clearly speeding. He started mimicking me and flipped me off. I flipped him off right back. That should have been it. Nope. He proceeds to punch my side view mirror with his fist damaging not just the mirror but the entire mechanism and molding that it attaches to my car with. That was a lot of anger in that punch.

I got to the light behind him to get his license and of course there was none. While I was taking a picture he flipped me off again. But once he saw I was calling the police he made an illegal left from the middle lane at a red light to get away. The cops said it was doubtful we would ever find him. Let me just say I was raised by a cop who taught me a lot and my investigative skills are great. We not only found him but the court date is coming up and he will have to pay restitution. I also found out he had an illegal weapons charge in March in which he was ordered to stay out of trouble for 6 months. He also has multiple traffic violations.

He's a dumb kid- only 23. The Mom in me wants to shake him and say stop doing these things! On my end, was flipping someone off even if they did it to me first really worth all this? No way. Given his past it would have been a gun and not his fist.

[Utopian Slums]

The worst was on a date in my early 20's. A person was apparently driving too close to said date on highway (so he said but i didn't notice.)

So date pulled in front of him and started "brake checking " him totally randomly. It was a busy highway in mid afternoon on a weekend. Told him to stop (more like politely asked because he wasn't one to respond to direct requests) but he was too caught up in his rage.

Never been so scared in a car in my entire life. At any second his car could've stopped *on purpose* and we'd be dead just so he could "teach him a lesson."

Since then I've been way less worried about the drunks. Been way more worried and cautious about these types of angry idiots looking for excuses to drive like that. So I drive pretty defensively.

[Tzaphkiel]

i almost got shot one day driving in New Jersey. It was terrifying. It cured me forever of flipping people off while driving. Because a very angry man became very upset, pulled his car close to mine, reached over to his glove box to get his gun, all the time going 60 on the freeway, and making eye contact with me. I pretended to be distracted, changed my speed, changed lanes, he stayed right with me and i was sure i was going to get shot. I finally put on my brakes and hazards and pulled over on the shoulder of the road with a ton of people honking, which was fine with me because I figured at least there would be witnesses, avoided his eye contact at all costs, and finally he sped off. That cured me permanently and forever from anger, swearing, upset on the road. I just start playing that memory in my head and it is so not worth it.

[parentologist]

This is a terrifying thread, because of all the replies from people who clearly are willing to engage in road rage confrontations.

Best thing to do is get away from them. Let them pass, fall behind, dial 911, drive to police station. Only an idiot would engage an enraged jackass, especially in these days when any and all of them have weapons!

[bmwguydc]

I have witnessed road rage and had some idiots who wanted to get in front of me, or teach me a lesson for whatever reason, and I understand that such people are in the midst of a mental crisis fueled by anger, so I get away from them.

One time, however, I was driving in the DC region, just past rush hour, approaching dusk, turning into a double left that made a single merge to The Beltway. It's perfectly legal to turn from the right and left lanes, and I was the first car in the right turn lane, with a few vehicles in the left lane. When the light turned green, I was on the ramp, and a black Range Rover turned right from the eastbound lanes behind me, cutting off cars in my lane, and then proceeding to pass me on the shoulder to cut to the left and enter The Beltway. I continued on my way, merged in a zipper fashion, and thought all was fine, despite the idiot who blew past everyone. A minute or so later, I noticed a pickup behind me, a little too close behind me, so I changed lanes to pass a slower vehicle that I was overtaking, and the truck followed. This continued for a few miles, and the truck pulled close, a couple of times blowing the horn and flashing lights. I lost the truck in some traffic and continued driving, but something told me to exit and turn into a shopping center, which I did. I needed to go to a grocery store anyway, and there was one in that center, so I proceeded to get out of my car and walk towards the store. Out of nowhere, as I rounded the back of my vehicle, I felt a hand push me hard, causing me to nearly lose my footing, and some obnoxious enraged driver screaming at me for cutting him off. I said that I had done no such thing, as I backed away, and he kept advancing, screaming at me for cutting him off on the ramp. I said that it was not me, and that I saw a black Range Rover cut everyone off. He swung at me and said that he found the black Range Rover and was going to teach me a lesson or words to that effect. He missed me and hit my vehicle, whereupon I pointed at it and said "But this Range Rover is blue." He looked at the vehicle, shouted an expletive, and ran to the pickup that was parked in the next row. He moved that truck at lightning speed and tore out of the parking lot, running a red light to turn left, and another right to get back on the highway. I was happy to see his lights receding, and could only describe the vehicle with a West Virginia tag. Given that it's not an uncommon pickup, the police could not track him down, just as a Range Rover is quite common in Northern Virginia, so a road rager may not see the difference between black and dark blue during early dusk.

I was headed to pick up one of my nephews from school, since he had a late practice, and am thankful that I decided to get off the highway early and go to a busy shopping center, as the assault that was perpetrated upon me could have been much more severe in an area with fewer people, not to mention the potential of exposing my nephew to danger. I thought the truck could have been a work truck, so I traversed the side streets to see if I could spot it, doing so in three different cars on three different days to no avail. I

[rodentraiser]

I've had a few people get mad at me, but the one that stands out in my mind is when I was coming back from the Cow Palace in San Francisco down 280. We were in bumper to bumper traffic, barely going 50, when the idiot behind me started flashing his lights at me. I was in the passing lane, but I couldn't move to the right and I couldn't go any faster because of all the traffic around me.

Just as the traffic was breaking up, I got over in the right lane and the unhappy camper behind me went whizzing by, only to get in the right lane in front of me and start break checking me. I was seriously considering giving him a wee bump (note to drivers: sometimes a truck is heavier than your little sports car), but my passenger was having hysterics at that point, so I didn't. Knowing what I know now, I'm glad I didn't.