Road rage - The response

I’m sure as you drive to work, to the store or any time you have to drive anywhere there is some person that is destined to make you angry.  For the most part you probably just sit in your car and yell into the air, possibly feeling like an idiot.  Just once wouldn’t you like to tell that ‘idiot’ face to face exactly what you think of their driving techniques?  Well then hop in the car with my hubby, he will show you exactly how it’s done.

This is slightly different from road rage.  In fact it might be the response to road rage, just not the one most people are looking for.  Road rage might be defined as someone doing something to you and then you doing something right back, such as tailgating, in a lot of instances causing accidents.  This first incident addresses that.

Case no. 1.  We were traveling down a 3 lane, one way road in the center lane, the speed limit 45, and we were doing the speed limit.  A person driving a vehicle decided that we weren’t going as fast as they wanted us to and felt the need to tailgate us, while blowing their horn.  He had gotten so close you could just about count the nose hairs on him.  Just to clarify, we were the only two vehicles on this road, he could have passed on either side.  My husband did the thing that most people do, he slammed on his brakes, just to see if he was paying attention.  Yep, he was. 

The man decided then that he wanted to pass on the right (perfectly legal) and show us his badge as he was passing.  Yep, ok he had a badge.  Without batting an eye, my husband whipped out his badge.  Well it wasn’t a ‘normal’ badge it was “Ace Ventura’s Pet Detective’ badge.  By this time they were yelling at each other across me, I tried sinking into the seat, to no avail.

The man saw a police officer that had pulled someone over, so he pulled up to him.  Not to be out done, my husband pulled in right behind him.  Might as well get it all out in the open is his motto.  The man took off, apparently he must have felt he didn’t have a good enough case.  We stayed to explain to the bemused officer what had happened.  He had a good laugh.

Case no. 2.  We had 2 of our girls in the car and were in search of a good restaurant to eat dinner.  A car load of young men decided that the girls needed some sign language lessons.  When my daughter asked “Hey Dad, why did those guys flip us off?” he decided to ask them.  He got behind them, not following too close but they decided to put the brakes to the test.  Ours held just fine. 

They decided to pull into a parking lot of a large grocery store, so we followed.  My husband truly wanted to know why they felt the need to do such a thing.  Again, I tried sinking into my seat, I have discovered it’s really hard to disappear at will.  The young men had stopped and one of them, must have been a football star, decided that he was selected to make an attempt at intimidation.  As we pulled up he had his door open, his feet on the ground and his elbows on his knees in a really ‘cool’ pose.

My husband put the car in park, and proceeded to get out of the car.  As he was walking toward the young men, he was removing his coat.  I think in ‘man speak’ that was enough intimidation and they couldn’t peel out of the parking lot quick enough.  I guess they didn’t want to talk.

Case no. 3.  Driving in another State can be a strange thing especially when you are unfamiliar with where you are going.  We were headed down  a road that was fairly busy, traffic was bumper to bumper.  There were about 5 cars ahead of us and one was stopping.  The vehicle behind us was following too close and it held 2 young females.  We had to come to a stop and the girl wasn’t paying attention, and hit us.  My husband got out of the car, maybe a bit rapidly.  It must have scared her because instead of getting out of her car, she took off running over the back of our car.  So now we had hit and run. 

My husband decided to follow her to get her license plate number.  About 5 miles down the road she finally stopped so we could talk.  He was upset, but when he seen that she was a teenager, he was going to take it easy on her.  As he got out of the car yet again, she hit the gas once again.  This time I had already gotten her license number.  We ended up leaving and going to the local police station. 

We found out why she was so scared.  She had lied to her mother about what she was doing and where she was going

Case no 4.  We were headed on another busy roadway, two lane, a lady coming from a side street to our left ran her stop sign to turn in front of us.  Not only did she almost get plowed on her driver side but she didn’t leave any room for us to stop.  She was applying her lipstick while looking in her rearview mirror.  In order to avoid hitting her my husband had to do a tricky maneuver, going on her left yet almost head on to the other traffic coming at us. 

My husband got in front of her and stopped.  He got out of the car to confront her about what she had done.  Yes he was angry, she had almost caused a serious pile up. This of course terrified her, and once again I found myself trying to disappear into the seat, as on lookers were gawking.  She denied putting on her lipstick, and of course denied running a stop sign. 

Now I am not sure if these are the most appropriate things for a person to do, since I am a non confrontational person.  To some it might be considered dangerous, but I think for the most part the people involved were so surprised that their behavior was not tolerated, they backed off. 

So next time someone does something so idiotic on the road you are driving on, just imagine doing one of these things, and it might make you feel better to know that there is at least one person who does.  Others may say “Ballsy - but stupid” and they may be right too!