UGH! Jerk on the road vent...

[pixiewings71]

OP, yes I did give the dispatcher the other persons license plate, and make and model and color of the car, as well as the description of the driver. LOL I gave the description and said "I'm giving you the description in case this isn't her car or there are more than 1 lady at the house, this might help the officer tell who she is". The dispatcher was impressed. LOL I also gave them my contact info in case they needed to get in touch with me after they found the driver. Told her I'd be happy to ID her if needed. LOL

I love that story!! It always feels so good when they get theirs in the end!! He probably saw you pulling over to talk to the cop and knew he was really screwed then.

I'm sure he did, and after I left someone else had pulled in after me that was in the toll plaza at the same time, it was actually someone who was supposed to merge behind me but couldn't due to that guys driving. I'm hoping they told the officer the same story I did! LOL

Just the other day we had someone cut us off where there's a merge. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting them. There was no possible way he didn't see me.. I was in a large suburban hauling a HORSE TRAILER. My poor horses got jolted very, very badly, and I was lucky they weren't hurt. I've known horses who have been seriously injured when things like that happened. I did blast my horn at him.. and a cop was right up ahead. Saw the whole thing, and pulled him over. He deserves the fine he gets. The real kicker was, his tags were dead so his car ended up getting impounded

Karma!! Glad you're ok and the horses weren't hurt!

There are always two sides to a story. I would have liked to hear the other side.

Seriously?? LOL I would to, so we can tell him what a jerk he was! LOL

Hmmmm, I live in MI and I didn't know that
Just a couple months ago, I was on my way home by myself, driving down long country roads. I came up on an Envoy going 10 miles under the speed limit so I decided to pass. I got ready to and the jerk slams on his breaks and his turn signal to turn left. So I slam on mine. He doesn't turn and continues on, so I pass him. I get right next to him and he flips me off and starts to pull something from the passenger seat that looked like a long barreled gun . I got infront of him and looked in my rearview mirror, all I saw was a long looking pipelike thing waving at me out the window and him angrily yelling and pointing the thing at me like he was going to hurt me. I have never felt so scared. I turned down a couple different roads which he followed me. The 3rd road I turned down was a gravel road and he slowed down and then kept on going. I was quite freaked out to say the least. Thank god my kids weren't with me. I have never experienced road rage that bad before.

Some people are just CRAZY!!

OK that is SCARY and I would have called the police on that one!

A couple of months ago a truck did not check his blind spot and started moving into my lane, I honked and honked and he just went faster into the lane and forced me to go into the oncoming traffic lane which thankfully was empty at the time or else I would have either been hit by the truck or an oncoming car. Such a complete jerk. My husband who was in the car with me took photos of the license plate, the side of the truck and the driver smiling and waving. I reported him to his trucking company and they told me they were going to take disciplinary action.

Good!! I had a trucker that was hauling Sierra Nevada beer cut me off twice, hit his blinker once but I was already about 1/4 up the trailer both times so I barely saw it on the side of the cab, again it was raining and there was no reason for him to move over. After it happened the 2nd time I got his plates, his trailer number and any other identifying marks on the truck and emailed SN when I got to work, told them what happened and they assured me they would speak with the trucking company they used, hopefully they did and someone talked to him.

I had a guy cut across three lanes of traffic and cut me off getting on an I 95on ramp one time...I gave him a "look" and was about to take "action" when he slammed on brakes, gave me the finger and then turned around and smirked at me before taking off again...

Unfortunately for him, I guess he didn't notice my Highway Patrol Uniform and that the car I was driving was an unmarked Highway Patrol car.....it ended badly for him

I just love pulling my bass boat on I 95..something about a guy pulling a boat just screams "please cut me off" for some reason...

LOVE it!!!

All the more reason to practice disengaging from the situation. I see a lot of justification for actions because "Well, I was in the RIGHT! And I had every right to (fill in the blank - blow my horn; give them the finger; cut them off; etc)"

My DH hears these excuses all the time for why people engage in battle with other drivers. His favorite (sarcasm intended) are the people who say they were engaged in road rage behavior because they were trying to teach the other driver a lesson. The other driver almost killed them and their children and they needed to "set an example" of how wrong that other driver is.

To which my DH replies, as he's handing that parent another citation, "Your children don't learn from other people's examples - they learn from your example. And if I ever see them driving as recklessly as you were, I'll pull them over and ticket them, too."

Learn how to disengage. If you're in a "cut-off war" with other drivers, realize that your whole intention in being on the road was to get to point B from point A in one piece and relatively happy. Learn how to back off. It's not a freakin' race! Learn that it's not your job to police other drivers no matter how much you think it is.

Learn how to disengage and you won't attact so many idiot drivers to you in the first place.

Since you quoted me I feel I can reply. I displayed absolutely NO road rage, I was driving slightly over the speed limit, (about 69-70 in a 65) I was unable to change lanes, yes I "paced" the car next to me for a while so he couldn't pass me but I was driving faster then the other car so I was passing, slowly yes but still passing (car to my right was probably going about 67-68). I was not going to speed up unsafely to get out of road rager guys way, as soon as he could pass the other guy he did, he flew past me so fast that I was able to safely change lanes ahead of the other car (which was my plan anyway, but he didn't have enough patience to wait for me to actually change lanes, he did not have room when he moved over, it was a very unsafe lane change) right after he flew by. In fact here's how the lane change went, he did not use his blinker, I was safe to change lanes (a little over a car length space) but he didn't wait, he just jumped over, which I anticipated and allowed for, I was not about to cut off the other driver to my right. So, road rage guy flies over, cutting off the car to the right, as he flies by me I hit my blinker, notice the officer now coming up very fast behind me, move over and am safe in the middle lane before road rage guy can even complete his change back into the lane I had just vacated. Road rage guy slams on his brakes which causes the officer to hit his lights almost immediately. It's my impression the officer was at the toll plaza and saw road rage guys actions, he didn't seem too surprised that I had followed him to the side of the road. I also apologize to him for my speeding and let him know it was my intent to get out of the guys way safely and slow down, the officer excused my speeding and let me go. As I was pulling out I noticed someone else behind me on the shoulder, window down waving at the officer. I recognized the car as one that was merging behind until road rage guy flew over thru the lanes towards me.

I definitely think that we often act without thinking. Further, I think that the OP agrees that she flipped off the other driver without thinking about it.

However, it's important that we own our actions and realize that acting without thinking can have very bad results. Would any of us be surprised if we opened the paper tomorrow and read about a 'road rage' homicide that played out exactly as described by the OP but resulted in someone either being run off the road or shot and killed?

As adults, we need to be able to not react emotionally when someone does something stupid on the road.

She DID acknowledge that she reacted poorly. I'm sure that in future incidents she will be able to curb her reaction better. I know that in the past I've reacted the same way she did, now I am much better at curbing that gut reaction and will shake my head and roll my eyes instead. Especially if my kids are with me.

I live and drive regularly in very high traffic areas with daily road rage, it's very uncommon for me to do anything other then eye rolling and head shaking. It's just not worth it. Makes me think of LA Story, the First Day of Spring scene cracks me up......