Road Rage Incident: Food for Thought (long)

[randytulsa2]

Christmas and road construction do not mix.

On Friday (Dec. 21) I witnessed an actual, honest-to-God road rage incident. As an aside, the roads in downtown Tulsa are a scandal, and the roads on what used to be known as the Keystone Expressway are as well. They are indefinitely disrupted for construction.

Anyway, it was a frightening deal. It happened fast, and it was violent. I don't know how it turned out. But it has provided me with some lessons, the way real-world things always do.

Traffic was heavy, and the three-lane road was reduced to one lane. Some idiot was weaving in and out of traffic, going way too fast. I speed a lot, so as an instance of the "it takes one to know one" rule, I can testify he was going way too fast for conditions.

I don't know if Mr. Speeder causes a wreck or runs someone off the road- I wasn't paying close enough attention. But when my Better Half and I reach our exit, two cars are pulled off the road, one right in front of the other. A third is pulled off some distance behind the other two.

Again, my powers of observation not being what they should be, I can't tell for sure if one of the cars here is Mr. Leadfoot or not- - but I can't help but think one of them was.

Some dude runs, I mean hell-bent-for-leather freaking sprints, from the front of the three pulled over cars to the car pulled up behind him. He has the look of a madman. Red-faced, showing teeth, wild, wild eyes. He is clearly furious. (I am a little ashamed here again at my weak powers of observation- I doubt I could pick the dude out of a lineup, but he was mid-20's, blonde, light complected, and maybe just slightest bit chubby).

Mr. Fury throws open the driver's door of the car behind him. He does it so hard the door bounces back and hits him. Then he starts clawing at the driver, trying to pull him out of the car. The driver extends his left (tattooed) arm (a detail I remember, for whatever reason) to get Mr. Fury off of him.

Mr. Fury's wife/girlfriend/significant other, clearly horrified by sweetie's performance (I mean she has a real look of concern, mixed with revulsion on her face), is grabbing him around the chest and waist attempting to pull him off.

I have to keep going, so I don't see what ultimately happens here. I see Mr. Fury chasing a car (on foot)(throwing punches at the same time- - a real genius, I'm sure) in my rear view mirror as I continue on down the exit.

That's all I see. The Better Half calls 9-1-1 and reports pretty much the same story. Two miles down the road an Oklahoma Highway Patrol cruiser is racing toward the scene.

As another aside, I see two Tulsa County Deputy Sheriffs less than a mile away, parked in an abandoned convenience store's parking lot. There are some jurisdictional boundaries involved here, so I am not directing any criticism toward them- - I doubt they were aware of the call- - but they could have been there a lot sooner than the Highway Patrol Trooper if those boundaries didn't count and response times did.

Lots of directions to go here, lots of lessons for learning.

1. LOCK YOUR DOORS. My wife (up to then) and my kids (still) absolutely hate my tendency to lock every freaking door around me. This little event just reinforces that. If Tattoo Man's door had been locked, Mr. Fury's efforts would have netted him a door handle as a souvenir, nothing more. Apparenty the incident ended OK as Tattoo Man presumably just drove off. But there was a real window of danger there, and things didn't have to turn out the (hopefully) good way they did. The Better Half is now on-board with the door-locking obsession.

2. MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET TO YOUR GUN WHILE IN YOUR CAR- FAST. Better yet, the Better Half is on board with a gun mounted in some sort of car holster in HER car (I've got a DeSantis Kingston in my truck...nothing like that in her car, and we all know an IWB or pocket carried piece or whatever might be inaccessible while seated in a car). When in her ride, I've started making sure I've got a j-frame in coat pocket --on my lap

2A It needs to be on the driver's right-hand side, too. No guns in the door pockets- if the door is ripped open, the gun is inaccessible. And that won't help..

2B Make sure it's a gun you can wield in a small space. A revolver with a 4-inch barrel or an automatic with a 5-incher might be too long to bring to bear with a steering wheel in the way while you're being pawed by a carjacker or some other sort of predator/idiot/species of societal excrement.

3. As we have discussed many times on this board- if you can, just drive off. Mr. Fury's impotent rage is amusing. A broken cheekbone (or worse) isn't. Besides that, a 2,000-pound car is FAR more powerful a weapon than any carry piece I can think of. Nothing can put distance between you and a bad guy's evil intentions than a car (unless you are a pilot). Use EVERYTHING available to you. Don't rely on your gun instead of your brain. Distance is our friend.

4. You can't think of everything at once. Try to, but be satisfied with doing the best you can. Get some training- it'll up your odds. Tattoo man would have kept on driving had he known what was about to happen. Eventually he did. Good for him. But he was in some real jeopardy there for a few moments.

5. Don't depend on the police. They'll get there. They may be able to help. They may not. It's up to you to protect yourself in the first instance.

That's about all I can glean from this little episode. I submit it for whatever we, as a board, can take from it. Have at it, my Brothers and Sisters!

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[sniper58]

Wow.....that could have turned out really ugly! Good lesson learned. Be glad you had the opportunity to go to school at another's expense. Stay safe - it's going to get uglier out there. I recently moved from Orlando to a much smaller town in Colorado. Orlando was recently voted the "angriest city in America." Now there's a title to cherish! I saw a TON of road rage in central Florida.

[nutz4utwo]

1. LOCK YOUR DOORS.

+1 My sister had a similar experience in New Jersey, however her doors were locked and she drove off...

[Janq]

Double down on the locked doors statement.

Year after I graduated HS a friend and classmate of mine was stopped at a light near a bust stop at a local mall. He'd been there shopping and as it was a bright sunny summer day he had his windows down with his radio cranked which was normal for us teens then. That was the last thing he can recall toward that day and nearly an entire month immediately there after.
Three carjackers ran up on him from both sides, swung open both doors which he'd had left unlocked (days before power locks were standard on all cars) and they pulled him out of the car to the road...at the stoplight in broad daylight amongst witnesses at the bus stop from which they ran...and they stomped his chest and head in. He suffered a broken face, cheek bones (both sides), multiple skull fractures, a broken palate (!), loss of his front teeth upper & lowers, a bite to his tongue, and swelling of his brain that threw him into a coma.
It took him almost 3 yrs. to physically recover to the point that he was no longer dependent on his parents but he had and still has brain issues, and no memory of what happened beyond going shopping at the mall and later waking up in ICU. Witnesses at the bus stop reported the details of what happened to him.

Locked doors FTW.

Also, damn pulling over to the side of the road.
Hell I ain't slowing down muchless stopping and if that means I've got to make some illegal right turns at a stop sign or red light then so be it. I'm not stopping to hug it out nor fight with no body about nothing.
I like my freedom, fully functional brain, and non defective body & face too much.
Call me a puss or a wuss or whatever words one might find in an urban dictionary. Just don't call me late for dinner or DOA.

Life is too short and crazy people too numerous to get bent, broke, and/or broken about a cut off or tailgate or speed racer zooming by.

- Janq

[riverkeeper]

2A It needs to be on the driver's right-hand side, too.

Good colorful situation and advice.

When driving I usually go from right side appendix to cross draw in the car ... personally do not like the weapon off my body in the car IF that is what you meant.

[Supertac45]

Janq has it right.

[friesepferd]

yea that kind of stuff is scary. very good insight. thanks!

[Arkhangel]

Another +1 on doors closed. My truck locks the doors automatically after it is under way, is a feature that I love as it is one less thing to think about while out and about. Some really nutty people out there.

SY

[retsupt99]

I let the angry drivers have the road...if cornered or chased, I'm not stopping...if I have to run a light, so be it. My doors are locked and I have a firearm and a cell phone at the ready.

Stay armed...stay safe!

[mr.stuart]

I agree on the not pulling over part especially.It is pretty hard to be forced off the road if you have a large truckIf someone wants to make you pull over,keep going and call 911.There are so many angry people on the road it is just foolish to engage them in their nuttery(that is such a great word)

[Thumper]

The scary part is that you can't tell who the road rage person is. The dude can be in a suit and tie or not be a dude at all but a nicely dressed woman! You never know who is about to go off.

"I see crazy people... and some of them don't even know that their crazy!"

[Rustynuts]

Could have been just a fender bender in the heavy traffic and everyone pulled over. Then the front idiot got angry. Always leave yourself an out and don't pull up tight to the front car.

[Ram Rod]

You never know on the road these days. I've been involved in two altercations, once where I was a third party observer that took action, once when I was the target of road rage. The third party observer instance is just way too long to tell here, but let's just say my display of my nickel plated Colt Trooper Mark IV with 5 3/4 barrel, most likely limited damage to human beings as the attackers (armed with a battery drill with long phillips tip bit) split after seeing my choice of weapons.
The one time I was a seeming victim of road rage-------I had apparently cut some guy off in a late 90's model Bronco, or Blazer when I changed lanes on a five lane highway (four lanes with middle turn lane) going through town. I'm a decent driver, and always check my mirrors, then signal my intentions. I drive a pickup truck, always have/always will. Once I had made the lane change, there is this sudden appearance of a vehicle behind me where the left lane had once been empty. I realize the fact when I hear a horn blast, and subsequent flashing of the headlights from that vehicle. Right lane traffic now is solid, and I'm sort of shaken as I had never seen the vehicle before it came up on my bumper, and I have no place to merge into the right lane from which I came without cutting someone off and taking a chance. About a mile and a half now, everyone is coming up on a changing light in the next town--turning to red. This guy is still behind me at the stoplight, and it's a long one because of turn lanes from the cross traffic, then the through traffic. I look in my sideview mirror, and see the driver door from the vehicle behind me open..(at this moment, the G17 came out from under the seat, and got placed on the center armrest/console next to me, and highly visible to anyone looking through my non-tinted side window). The guy appears to be wearing a police uniform! I thought to myself--oh--sh**! My window was down a crack, and my doors also lock automatically when my truck gets started, and stay that way unless manually unlocked. Once he gets to my truck, I see and hear him trying the door handle, and he starts spouting some obscene crap, and telling me he's going to send me a ticket in the mail. I started to apologize saying--I didn't even see you--where did you come from, and where's the fire? By this time I notice he is wearing a guard agency uniform, like the ones at the mall. Unarmed rental security. So when he can't open the door, he finally looks in through the window to see me and Mr. Glock! Now the light is turning green, and so is he! I drove away with the flow of traffic while he rushed back to his SUV as he's now blocking traffic. See-you-later. Too many retards out there folks. Be careful, and know that even if you've done nothing to elicit an attack---it can happen, and fast. Be safe, be ready and try to monitor that perimeter.

[jarhead45]

Too many people in too small an area. Happens to rats in a cage they tell me. Reason I started carrying, Makes me sad I gotta carry for such the same reason. I used to carry cause of the snakes under the house and never worried about a permit, now the snakes are everywhere.