Road Rage Threat
Discussion
Friday Morning, M11, southbound, and I've just dropped off my 5 year old at school, pull onto the motorway, do the right things, mirror, signal manouver, pull into overtaking lane as I am travelling faster than left lane traffic, but still only around 65mph. Suddenly a blue Renault POS races up behind me, flashing lights, must have been doing 100mph. I have nowhere to go, and by now I'm at the speed limit. Next thing the guy starts making abusive hand signals, then he starts to try to ram the back of my car. In the highway code, it states that if someone is driving too close, you are supposed to ease off and drop back a bit from the car in front, leaving a safe distance.
Next thing I know, the following car is beside me, in between a car on the left lane, and me in the overtaking lane, so we are now 3 abreast on a 2 lane road. In front is a Fiesta, desperately trying to get out of the way, cos in her rear view mirror there are three cars travelling way too fast. Then this guy tries to force me into the central reservation, his wing mirror is almost against my passenger window. The Fiesta in front gets space to pull intot he left lane, and I boot the car to basically get away, admittedly I'm panicking by this stage, the guy is apparently trying to kill me. I'm doing 100, trying to clear some distance so I can get to an off ramp, then the same bloke comes up my outside, putting him nearly against the central reservation, again trying to nudge the rear of the car!!
After about 5 miles I get to an off ramp at Duxford, snap off, and he follows me, pulls up in front. Now my car has darkened windows, so he can't really see me. So when I get out to ask him politely what the fk he thinks he is doing, he won't get out of the car (I'm 6ft and about 15 stone, and very very angry by this point) Having tried to smash my way through his drivers window (error of judgement, heat of the moment etc) I get back in my car, phone the rozzers (999). Guess what, unless we had actually had an accident, they don't want to know.
Final upshot was the bloke stopped down the road while I was parked up on the phone, when I thought he was going to come at me again, I moved off, safety in public areas etc, at which point the car ran out of petrol! He disappeared off in the opposite direction, I nursed the car 200 metres to a fuel station.
I've got the reg number of this guy, one day I will have the pleasure of meeting up with him, and frighten the living sh1t out of him. I'll put the number up if a mediator says it is not against the rules. Any info would be gratefully appreciated. Also any other horror stories of sales rep man with attitude would be interesting to hear about, police say this happens all the time, no wonder there is such a bad record of safety when people do this with no regard for innocent people (there were a lot of other cars on the road) Most worrying I could have had a 5 year old in the car, with nowhere to go.
BTW I drive Impreza Sport Wagon WRX, so I could have easily oupaced him, but motorways in rush hour are not racetracks.
Next thing I know, the following car is beside me, in between a car on the left lane, and me in the overtaking lane, so we are now 3 abreast on a 2 lane road. In front is a Fiesta, desperately trying to get out of the way, cos in her rear view mirror there are three cars travelling way too fast. Then this guy tries to force me into the central reservation, his wing mirror is almost against my passenger window. The Fiesta in front gets space to pull intot he left lane, and I boot the car to basically get away, admittedly I'm panicking by this stage, the guy is apparently trying to kill me. I'm doing 100, trying to clear some distance so I can get to an off ramp, then the same bloke comes up my outside, putting him nearly against the central reservation, again trying to nudge the rear of the car!!
After about 5 miles I get to an off ramp at Duxford, snap off, and he follows me, pulls up in front. Now my car has darkened windows, so he can't really see me. So when I get out to ask him politely what the fk he thinks he is doing, he won't get out of the car (I'm 6ft and about 15 stone, and very very angry by this point) Having tried to smash my way through his drivers window (error of judgement, heat of the moment etc) I get back in my car, phone the rozzers (999). Guess what, unless we had actually had an accident, they don't want to know.
Final upshot was the bloke stopped down the road while I was parked up on the phone, when I thought he was going to come at me again, I moved off, safety in public areas etc, at which point the car ran out of petrol! He disappeared off in the opposite direction, I nursed the car 200 metres to a fuel station.
I've got the reg number of this guy, one day I will have the pleasure of meeting up with him, and frighten the living sh1t out of him. I'll put the number up if a mediator says it is not against the rules. Any info would be gratefully appreciated. Also any other horror stories of sales rep man with attitude would be interesting to hear about, police say this happens all the time, no wonder there is such a bad record of safety when people do this with no regard for innocent people (there were a lot of other cars on the road) Most worrying I could have had a 5 year old in the car, with nowhere to go.
BTW I drive Impreza Sport Wagon WRX, so I could have easily oupaced him, but motorways in rush hour are not racetracks.
I 've got a trivial example next to yours, scooby, but its amazing how little tolerance people seem to have for anyone who is "in their way" - even momentarily.
This morning going shopping. Came back. Need to make a sharp left turn into our housing estate - its always got kids on bikes etc so it is *imperative* to signal, slow right down, take a good look into the junction and only then make the turn.
Bloke behind me seemed to think that turning carefully into a housing estate should have been executed at 30mph (instead of 5) as this would have meant I wouldn't have required him to slow down.
Gets on the horn and swerves wildly by. No tolerance AT ALL.
This morning going shopping. Came back. Need to make a sharp left turn into our housing estate - its always got kids on bikes etc so it is *imperative* to signal, slow right down, take a good look into the junction and only then make the turn.
Bloke behind me seemed to think that turning carefully into a housing estate should have been executed at 30mph (instead of 5) as this would have meant I wouldn't have required him to slow down.
Gets on the horn and swerves wildly by. No tolerance AT ALL.
I never posted this story at the time because I didn't know how it was going to pan out, but it seems long enough has passed now to blab it.
Last Jan I was on the way home from picking my wife up when a similar thing happened again on motorways and then a 2 lane bypass which ended up with me doing 100 ish (petrol Freelander company car) with arsehole so close I couldn't see his headlights, he then made the move to come inside didn't have enough room to get passed so came back out and tried to force me to either brake hard or swerve into the central reservation by cutting across my front, However I actually did neither and just held the car solid and waited for impact, the rules of physics meant that when the rear of a small hatchback (G reg white corrolla type thing) hits the front of a Land Rover from the side there was only going to be one car that would come off badly, he managed to spin twice in the road before going up the bank through some small staked trees very nearly rolling it. My wife went into hysterics and was screaming that I had to stop to see if he was alright, my reaction was "**** off he's a nutter but I will ring plod" I dialed the three 9's recanted the story to be told by the operator "I don't blame you by the sounds of it, we'll send someone out". Anyway 20 minutes later plod phone me back to establish exactly where it was as they've found vehicle tracks but the cars gone and that was the last I ever heard of it. Oh and damage to the Freelander was a small scuff to the front bumper.
There are loonies out there, 4x4's are good for something, and the leason I learnt is not to wind the nutters up by lighting up your brake lights when they get right up your arse because it actually escalates the situation and makes it worse.
Last Jan I was on the way home from picking my wife up when a similar thing happened again on motorways and then a 2 lane bypass which ended up with me doing 100 ish (petrol Freelander company car) with arsehole so close I couldn't see his headlights, he then made the move to come inside didn't have enough room to get passed so came back out and tried to force me to either brake hard or swerve into the central reservation by cutting across my front, However I actually did neither and just held the car solid and waited for impact, the rules of physics meant that when the rear of a small hatchback (G reg white corrolla type thing) hits the front of a Land Rover from the side there was only going to be one car that would come off badly, he managed to spin twice in the road before going up the bank through some small staked trees very nearly rolling it. My wife went into hysterics and was screaming that I had to stop to see if he was alright, my reaction was "**** off he's a nutter but I will ring plod" I dialed the three 9's recanted the story to be told by the operator "I don't blame you by the sounds of it, we'll send someone out". Anyway 20 minutes later plod phone me back to establish exactly where it was as they've found vehicle tracks but the cars gone and that was the last I ever heard of it. Oh and damage to the Freelander was a small scuff to the front bumper.
There are loonies out there, 4x4's are good for something, and the leason I learnt is not to wind the nutters up by lighting up your brake lights when they get right up your arse because it actually escalates the situation and makes it worse.
Quick follow up. I was advised by 999 operator that I could report the incident, but as it would be my word against his, nothing, apart from plod making a visit to have a little chat with him, would be done. Obviously it would be my word against his etc.
All Friday I was tense about the incident, so I visited local plod that evening, just to get 'advice' but I was also a bit worried about the 30 or 40 cars we passed at high speed putting them at risk. Upshot was CPS won't take a case one on one, no evidence etc, but to quote plod 'maybe you'll see him on the M11 again, then you can nudge hime into the barriers!!' I had bottled out on taking a tyre iron to his car when we had stopped, nor the leatherman to his tyres, now I wish I had, plod seem to advise it!
I really hope no one ever encounters anything like the original incident, it looks great on touring car and films, but in real life it is very scary indeed.
Another question, should I post his reg number?
All Friday I was tense about the incident, so I visited local plod that evening, just to get 'advice' but I was also a bit worried about the 30 or 40 cars we passed at high speed putting them at risk. Upshot was CPS won't take a case one on one, no evidence etc, but to quote plod 'maybe you'll see him on the M11 again, then you can nudge hime into the barriers!!' I had bottled out on taking a tyre iron to his car when we had stopped, nor the leatherman to his tyres, now I wish I had, plod seem to advise it!
I really hope no one ever encounters anything like the original incident, it looks great on touring car and films, but in real life it is very scary indeed.
Another question, should I post his reg number?
Its gotta be soooooo tempting just to nerf him into the barriers as he goes past the front of you. Yank cops do it all the time, just a little nudge and he's GONE!
There are some arses out there. Pity he didn't have a company name on view, else you could've reported him... job loss would concentrate his mind.
There are some arses out there. Pity he didn't have a company name on view, else you could've reported him... job loss would concentrate his mind.
quote:
Another question, should I post his reg number?
IMO, there could have been circumstances outwith your/his control! Just had a phone call saying Wife/Daughter/Brother/Son/Mum/Dad etc has just been taken to hospital after suffering a heart attack, late for a meeting, or something else completely!
But in Stressful or anger spawning situations, people react irrationally (you nearly smashed his drivers window - you see what I mean)!!!
There are however some very impatient people on the roads and I will not deny that at times I can be one of them, but I will not encite road rage in any shape or form, personally, if a mumptie is in my way, a few flahes of the headlights and the left hand indicator works a treat!
Posting his Reg number will not help in any way shape or form, and doing so could bring a liable case against you or PH.com!
All IMHO of course
>> Edited by tvradict on Sunday 19th May 03:21
Funny this post coming up .... we've just spent the weekend near Brighton, with friends (we live in the Midlands) and we were horrified to see the standard of driving round London, and some of the tw@s down there. Is this just a London thing ? Is it worse down south ??
The worse bit was watching this young couple in a Mini (on some kind of London-Brighton Mini event ... Mini's everywhere !
) being picked on by a d**khead in a Bora coz they weren't overtaking fast enough on the A23 (dual), and watching this Bora physically try and ram the poor mini off the road .... incredible ! Wish I'd got the video camera ...
Mel : btw, top notch !!!
The worse bit was watching this young couple in a Mini (on some kind of London-Brighton Mini event ... Mini's everywhere !
) being picked on by a d**khead in a Bora coz they weren't overtaking fast enough on the A23 (dual), and watching this Bora physically try and ram the poor mini off the road .... incredible ! Wish I'd got the video camera ... Mel : btw, top notch !!!
I had a bloke yesterday in leafy Eton who wouldnt let me in a car park! I was turning in with another car behind me and this fella just sat there as if to say 'I have a BMW (belongsto micro-phallused w*nker) so you have to move' so I didnt. Then saw that I could just get through a gap giving him a rather large earful of 4.5 litres as I went. Then I drove on, picked 'er indoors up, turned it round to drive out of the gap I drove into and this fella was still there. So I waited, and he finally moved. Followed the c*nt up through Eton and then at the next set of lights just sat there when they were green and as soon as they went amber launched himself off the line. Then realising that he had just encroached a filter lane on green abused some poor woman whose right of way it was and sped off.
If only I'd been carrying a shotgun and not the girlfriend.
Its complete t*ssers like this that give BMW drivers everywhere a bad name.
Matt.
If only I'd been carrying a shotgun and not the girlfriend.
Its complete t*ssers like this that give BMW drivers everywhere a bad name.
Matt.
Scooby.....sounds awful...wish you had smashed through his window though (sorry to every reasonbale person out there). People like this understand only one thing - and it's usually serious, cippling violence. What an absolute w**ker.
I wish you would post his reg plate, though sadly I have to agree with tvraddict on this one
Mind you - was amazed last night...driving into London on the M4 at about 9:45...drops to a 50...and everyone is doing about that. I'm in inside lane and guy pulls out from behind me - probably doing about 55...about a minute later this Merc hammers up behind him (slowing from about 80 I would think) then proceeds to flash this guy to get out the way (not that he could as there was lots of traffic)...quite amazing really....
I wish you would post his reg plate, though sadly I have to agree with tvraddict on this one
Mind you - was amazed last night...driving into London on the M4 at about 9:45...drops to a 50...and everyone is doing about that. I'm in inside lane and guy pulls out from behind me - probably doing about 55...about a minute later this Merc hammers up behind him (slowing from about 80 I would think) then proceeds to flash this guy to get out the way (not that he could as there was lots of traffic)...quite amazing really....
Its all too common these days. I too witnessed quite a few TERRIBLE acts or driving on public roads this weekend including a scoobie that over took me and the slow biddy in front on an uphill left hander with a crest of hill only 50 yds away. If anything, even a smart car had come the other way, he would have not only killed himself, but hurt or killed a few others.
Numpties, the lot of them.
I reckon an advanced driving test should be standard these days for EVERYONE!
Or free track days
to let people take out there stress in relative safety. 
the offending driver will not!
Scoobs,
This must have been really scary; I hope you took some snacks to calm yourself down afterward?
Must agree with what has been said before: from a legal point of view posting this twerp's reg. might cause problems for Ted, but you should also be careful about posting on your own website: although the liability may change the complaint (and possible charge) would stay the same.
Would have been nice to give him a flick around the earhole, though
>> Edited by animal on Monday 20th May 13:17
This must have been really scary; I hope you took some snacks to calm yourself down afterward?
Must agree with what has been said before: from a legal point of view posting this twerp's reg. might cause problems for Ted, but you should also be careful about posting on your own website: although the liability may change the complaint (and possible charge) would stay the same.
Would have been nice to give him a flick around the earhole, though
>> Edited by animal on Monday 20th May 13:17
while I agree his actions were not called for, I have a BUT. I often whizz up behind slower vehicles, but thats yours and there porogative, and I pass when its free, I dont rage. my But is, "he suddenly appeared" my sugestion to you, is you didnt look properly behind you when you changed lane, causing him to ram his brakes on and cack himself. possibly fearing his life is about to end - which in turn upset HIM. you may well have been going faster than the inside lane, but that doesnt give you permission to just "pull out"
I wasnt there, I dont know the facts, but I have seen this too many times myself to sit here and just accept, your the worlds greatest driver.
in your defence, since you seemed to be near a junction, I would suggest the other car should take this into consideraiton and slow himself,as cars ARE joining slower than he, and its a risk area.
I wasnt there, I dont know the facts, but I have seen this too many times myself to sit here and just accept, your the worlds greatest driver.
in your defence, since you seemed to be near a junction, I would suggest the other car should take this into consideraiton and slow himself,as cars ARE joining slower than he, and its a risk area.
Must have been something in the air yesterday.
I went to get some drinks from my nearest petrol station after a game of squash.
There must be 8 or 12 pumps available. Three or four of them were being used. I drove past two empty pumps and then moved across to park in a pump marked OUT OF ORDER as I didn't need any petrol, and there is no point in holding anyone else up who wants fuel. I get out and start walking indoors, Guy in a mercedes jumps out and starts hurling abuse about how I jumped the queue, I pointed out that it was out of order to which he claimed I was. I told him where to get off. Got my drinks go to pay and mercedes man(i don't want to type the words I really want to call him) starts all over again. By now there are 10 people watching the scene and MM still can't back down. I offered to move, and let him use the pump, but he still insisted that was not the point.
I was waiting for him to throw the first punch, so that I could finish him off, as self defence in front of at least 2 or 3 cameras.
Did not enjoy the experience on bit. I would have been better off blocking a working pump than being near that MM.
Alan
I went to get some drinks from my nearest petrol station after a game of squash.
There must be 8 or 12 pumps available. Three or four of them were being used. I drove past two empty pumps and then moved across to park in a pump marked OUT OF ORDER as I didn't need any petrol, and there is no point in holding anyone else up who wants fuel. I get out and start walking indoors, Guy in a mercedes jumps out and starts hurling abuse about how I jumped the queue, I pointed out that it was out of order to which he claimed I was. I told him where to get off. Got my drinks go to pay and mercedes man(i don't want to type the words I really want to call him) starts all over again. By now there are 10 people watching the scene and MM still can't back down. I offered to move, and let him use the pump, but he still insisted that was not the point.
I was waiting for him to throw the first punch, so that I could finish him off, as self defence in front of at least 2 or 3 cameras.
Did not enjoy the experience on bit. I would have been better off blocking a working pump than being near that MM.
Alan
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