Road Rage: What do you do? What should you do?

The other week I had an incident where a bloke chased me for about 8
miles. The whole thing was started off by me changing lanes to the
left and preventing matey from undertaking a line of traffic on a
roundabout[1]. During the whole episode he tailgated for about 1/4
mile, pulled alongside and swerved at me twice, swerved across two
lanes of traffic[2], attempted to block my path and got out (being a
bit shouty), chased me again performing some ludicrous overtakes (one
involving an oncoming bus).

From the way he was driving he was furious over something, and all
reason appeared to be on leave. I managed to lose him round a twisty
bit that I know well. Had I not had this option what the hell are you
supposed to do? I was in the car, he was in a much more powerful car
[3]. Without local knowledge I doubt I'd have been able to lose him,
and considering the lengths he was going to to stop me I'm not sure
proceeding through the morning commuter/school jams to the local police
station would've gotten me very far.

I've now got matey's registration. He ended up behind me in an exact
copy of the original situation, and sure enough he tailgated me, then
as soon as we'd left the junction I let him go where he nearly drove
into the back of another car after flooring it to get past. Happily,
this morning he just drove off.

So, what's the procedure in this? The only thing I did to make the
situation worse was to mouth "very mature" with a thumbs up after the
swerving bit. I apologised at the start, even though I thought it was
his fault. What I did worked, but there's no lesson to be learned for
the future. I'm interested in the BHaLC, police/legal and any
contrasting opinions.

[1] I was turning right on a roundabout and positioning for my exit.
I'd passed matey as he was stationary in his junction. When I checked
it was clear, so I signalled and moved. I might have missed something
but the most I'd give him is 50/50.
[2]As I was leaving a 2 lane motorway he went from lane 2 to lane 1 on
the sliproad, cutting up two lanes of traffic.
[3] Lexus LS400 according to the RAC, had a v8 badge on the back.

 

You could call 999 whilst driving, and arrange where to meet up with the
boys in blue.

 

At the time there was a problem with this - my mobile was in the boot
(it's not anymore). Would the police take it seriously? Wouldn't they
take a dim view of me tanking along on the phone?

 

<snip>

Maybe the thing to do, is let people drive their own drives, unless it
puts you in real danger, thus avoiding making a bad situation worse for
yourself.

 

It depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to just go back to
a happy care-free life, just ignore him & he'll probably stop doing it
once he's got it out of his system.

If you want revenge, get someone else to go in the car with you, wind
up matey so he flips again, & get your passenger to video the results.
That should see him off the road for dangerous driving.

 

But for God's sake use a hands-free kit or you'll *both* be in trouble!

 

Lead him to the local cop shop

 

I did this once after someone tried to force me off the M4. The
response was "we haven't got anyone in the area". The fact it was going
to be at least 15 minutes until we got to the next junction didn't make
a difference - still "nobody in the area".

 

Well, firstly why tank along... so long as you're moving faster than he
could run it'll be impossible for him to drag you out of the car.
Secondly, if people's lives are being put at risk it's a legit reason to
call.

 

Not quite sure of your point here. I didn't pull out on him on
purpose, and I gave him opportunity to pass as soon as it was practical
to do so. He took this opportuinity to swerve into my lane once
alongside. Not quite sure what else I can do to let him drive his own
drive. Ok, perhaps the one signal I did give was just the thing to
push his buttons, but it doesn't appear to take much.

 

As we left the motorway he stopped, and stopped me from getting round
him. He got out to come and have a word. As soon as he got upright
and had left his car I thought leaving would be better than staying and
off I went. Catching him off guard saw me keep clear for a while but
it was him trying to catch me again at this point where it got serious.
Back onto single carriageways some of his overtakes made me wonder
where his lines were.

Damage to vehicles didn't look impossible. Stop to see what he wants
and risk a collision? I seriously had no idea what this chap would've
stopped at. Again, impossible to call without getting out of the car -
phone's in the boot.

Perhaps if I'd have let him vent a while he would've got bored and
driven off. I wouldn't have got out of the car, and the doors are
automatically locked (some anti-carjacking feature I gather). It's
easy with hindsight, but at the time I didn't know he would continue to
follow. If I did I would've been a bit quicker/slower on the 15
previous miles of motorway to ensure I didn't get to that roundabout at
the same time.

 

All I'm saying, is work round these people without trying to get in
their way. I don't think I read your original post properly though.

 

I have no desire for revenge, and happy/care-free sounds pretty good to
me. If it were possible I would prefer him to be less agressive as a
driver - insert "accident waiting to happen" phrases for yourself. His
style this morning (I'm not sure whether he recognised me or not) was
similar brain-out stuff to last time.

Setting up a video stunt like you describe wouldn't be impossible - it
appears his daily commute is consistent in route and time, but why
inflict more of the same on more folk who are on the same road and want
the happy/care-free life?

 

[snip]

A similar thing happened to me I was driving my mothers car across the
Kingston bridge in Glasgow, I was in the outside lane and a chap in a
Citroen super turbo mini diesel type thingy appeared on my tail,I was
doing 50, the limit was 50 there was a car 20 yds in front of me and the
inside lane was moving at the same speed with more cars in. He starts
flashing and waving at me because I wasn't 2 inches off the bumper of
the car in front which I ignored until we were across the bridge and I
felt I was in a safe position to move in which I did.

He came tearing past me then proceeded to pull in front of me and slams
on the brakes, I moved left and passed him he accelerated past me
shouting and throwing fag ends and pens at me and again pulled in front
of me and braked, I moved right past him he accelerated past me and
pulled in front again and braked, I then got to my exit, indicated and
moved onto the slip road (no hard shoulder) where he swerved over in
front of me and stopped, I had to stop the car behind him and hoped that
noone ran into the back of me, he actually looked like he was going to
get out of the car onto the motorway for a second before he shot off
again. By this time we had his number plate, car description and a good
look at his mug so went to the police and reported it. They took the
details of the cars, names addresses etc. and said they would pop round
and have a word with the chap.

Went up to the folks and was washing the car when the bobby we had
spoken to walks down the drive with a serious look on his face and tells
me that I had been reported for road rage, I reminded him that I was the
one who had made the complaint to which he had a Homer "Doh" moment and
then apologised and went off to get the bad guy.

It didn't really inspire me with confidence but at least they did something

--
Martin:
"For a minute there, you bored me to death."
VTR1000 Firestorm
TDR250 http://ukrm.net/BIKES/Yamaha/tdr250.html
martin dot smith nine zero three at ntlworld dot com

 

trouble!

I tell you what - next time I see him I'll sit in front of him in a
queue of traffic *with my foot on the brake pedal*! That'll show him.

 

Like wot some of the others have said, the best response is none at all and
just ignore the twat. Not that its easy to do so.

The one time I've reported a case of road rage the police took a statement
from me and then a day later reported to me that the car was still
registered with the old owner and so they had no idea who he was, but if the
car was pulled a a later dte they'd have a word. I heard nothing else...

A mate who works for the Police advises that if you have an alteraction of
some kind then you should do what they do and phone in to report that matey
appears to be DUI - embellish a bit and say "When he got out he staggered a
bit and slurred while he shouted". That normally prompts a quicker response
if they think they can get a conviction that way....

Dave

 

Hanging's too good.

 

Christofire emerged from their own little world to say

If they have CCTV they could monitor the situation and deploy a vehicle if
it looked appropriate. Or they could just record you getting beaten up for
Crimewatch....

 

Christofire wrote

Baseball bat at one pace.

 

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