Girlfriend and her GLOCK thwart road rage attack

[Anubis]

Having observed in reviewing many driving records that virtually all speeding tickets are issued for more than 10 over, I cruise at 5 over. Regardless, if I am in the left lane and see someone catching up, I get into the right lane.

My state (CO) even has a new law designed to reduce road-rage incidents which requires that, for roads with limits of at least 65, you travel in the left lane only long enough to pass.

I congratulate SGeringer's girlfriend on exercising restraint. I can easily imagine many others reflexively blasting someone who actually stuck his head into the car.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[GoodSamaritan]

While it is posted 65 it still impedes traffic and can cause road rage.

Not trying to be contentious here, but. Since when, does obeying the law cause criminal behavior? The answer is of course, it doesn’t. It causes road rage like guns cause crime, or flies cause garbage. It is just another lame excuse. “The devil made me do it”

Some people just have short fuses and no self control. They will find someone to be angry at, or in this case, someone to terrorize, regardless of how their day goes. If you are going the speed limit in the right lane, and that ticks them off so much that they feel the need to chase you down and yell at you, they need a wake up call. Preferably in the form of jail time.


She did the right thing. She didn’t antagonize him, she turned off the road, and went about her business. He escalated the situation because he feels the need to yell at someone in order to make himself feel big.

Why would you purposefully walk up to a 280 lb. Linebacker and smack him in the face..? You wouldnt...so why provoke someone into RR by being inconsiderate and staying in the fast lane while traffic is mounting up behind them.

Driving like you have brain in your head, is not the equivalent of whacking someone in the face.

Having said that, I stay in the right lane the great majority of the time. But when I am going 70 in a 65 and I pass a semi going 55, there is no reason for some knucklehead to run right up on my bumper halfway through, start honking and flipping me off.

RR is inexcusable 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 999% of the time. I have been attacked by a road rage moron twice to the point of vehicle contact. These days I drive large vehicles, and they can honk, gesture, and swerve about all they want. I will let them have the road, if they come after me, I will try to evade. However if the leave me no choice I have long ago decided that I will do everything I can to make sure they lose the confrontation.

[GoodSamaritan]

In a side note, the only thing I can fault the GF with, is not leaving when the BG approached her truck. I would say you are proud of her with good reason.

[AZG23]

Your logic is flawed....

obeying the law can lead to all kinds of crime my friend. You could be carjacked because you have a nice car. Your wife could be mugged while out exercising, you could be shot in the bank during a bank robbery when you were just making a legal deposit. What I am saying is most of the folks I see putting in the fast lane need to move over because there are always hot heads that "may" rage on them. Again, not condoning it...its a fact of our society.....why provoke it. YMMV.

Again...I am not making excuses for people who cannot control themselves behind the wheel.

I had an experience on Friday morning driving to work. I drive a slighlty lifted large tired Nissan Frontier....its Yellow.and I drive with my headlights on (been pulled out in front of too many times) andyway...I am on the Loop 303 here in AZ..it is a 2 lane hiway in the section I am on....ther are a few other vehicles. The posted limit is 55, and most are doing that or 5 over. I am in the slow lane as I come upon a truck and a few cars in the slow lane, I signal to the fast lane which is moving faster than the slow lane (they are doing 55). I am behind another 2 vehicles...one pickup in front of me and a car in front of him...the lady in front of the guy in front of me..we will call her Slow Flow for the sake of this incident...she passed by the other cars and the semi truck and then slowed down..still in the fast lane. This stuck us next to the semi and other cars...with no way to get by. Another 2 cars caught up behind me..so 4 cars...and she isnt moving to the left as she has enough room...finally the pickup in front of me has just enough room to get by in front of the semi....so here I am in my truck...lights on, and just over a car length behind her as I move up....she is STILL doing 55 and even the semi is slowly gaining on us and I cannot get around. I DID NOT honk, didnt wave, didnt flash my lights..I was just waiting for her to move over and I had nowhere I could move to. SHE started wiggin out and flipping ME off...waving her arms around like an idiot while talking on her cell...the truck driver saw this and slowed to where I could move in front of him and pass her in the slow lane...she started flipping ME off...and I could tell foaming profanities at me..for her inconsiderate act of blocking the FLOW of traffic. I simply passed and shook my head...I was in utter disbelief. This is the type of thing I am talking about. I was raged on by Flow for her lack of intelligence.

there is NO reason to behave this way...or to tailgate on someone passing a slower moving vehicle.

Stay safe-stay right!

[RSSZ]

Hummmm, Let me see. Your doing 55mph and your "just over a car length behind her" ?? Maybe she was "misbehavein" cuz YOU WERE FOLLOWING TOO CLOSE----which is against the law in most states I believe. I still feel that you are trying to justify the blow hard's behavior in the first post. I would agree with you that you should pull out--pass--and get back in the slow lane ASAP. But if you don't ---that gives others the right to do what------?? If more people would drive "right" then we all could get to where we're going----what??---say a minute and a half sooner?? My final word,with due respect.------

[GoodSamaritan]

Your logic is flawed.... obeying the law can lead to all kinds of crime my friend.

I disagree.
I don’t want to start a debate that causes the original thread to become lost. Nor do I want an argument, however I still don’t agree that obeying the law CAUSES crime.

You could be carjacked because you have a nice car.

No you could be car jacked because some goblin wants to steal something that you most likely worked very hard to be able to afford. Not because you were obeying the law.

Your wife could be mugged while out exercising

No your wife might be mugged because some crack head wants some money to get high.
Not because she was obeying the law.

you could be shot in the bank during a bank robbery when you were just making a legal deposit.

Wrong again, you might get shot in a bank robbery because some morons want to score some fast money, and you were unlucky enough to be there when they struck. Not because you were obeying the law.

What I am saying is most of the folks I see putting in the fast lane need to move over

Agreed

because there are always hot heads that "may" rage on them. Again, not condoning it...its a fact of our society.....why provoke it. YMMV.

I agree that keeping a relatively low profile is a good idea. However it isn’t going to stop RR. Those same people will just travel another 1/4 mile down the road and go after someone else. Whether there excuse is “they didn’t slam on the brakes and let me in, when I tried to cut in front of them 2 miles after I saw the first sign saying that the left lane is closed.”

Again...I am not making excuses for people who cannot control themselves behind the wheel.

I understand that, but those people are going to be provoked at someone anyway, drive like you have some sense and don’t worry about it.

I had an experience on Friday morning driving to work. I drive a slighlty lifted large tired Nissan Frontier....its Yellow.and I drive with my headlights on (been pulled out in front of too many times) andyway...I am on the Loop 303 here in AZ..it is a 2 lane hiway in the section I am on....ther are a few other vehicles. The posted limit is 55, and most are doing that or 5 over. I am in the slow lane as I come upon a truck and a few cars in the slow lane, I signal to the fast lane which is moving faster than the slow lane (they are doing 55). I am behind another 2 vehicles...one pickup in front of me and a car in front of him...the lady in front of the guy in front of me..we will call her Slow Flow for the sake of this incident...she passed by the other cars and the semi truck and then slowed down..still in the fast lane. This stuck us next to the semi and other cars...with no way to get by. Another 2 cars caught up behind me..so 4 cars...and she isnt moving to the left as she has enough room...finally the pickup in front of me has just enough room to get by in front of the semi....so here I am in my truck...lights on, and just over a car length behind her as I move up....she is STILL doing 55 and even the semi is slowly gaining on us and I cannot get around. I DID NOT honk, didnt wave, didnt flash my lights..I was just waiting for her to move over and I had nowhere I could move to. SHE started wiggin out and flipping ME off...waving her arms around like an idiot while talking on her cell...the truck driver saw this and slowed to where I could move in front of him and pass her in the slow lane...she started flipping ME off...and I could tell foaming profanities at me..for her inconsiderate act of blocking the FLOW of traffic. I simply passed and shook my head...I was in utter disbelief. This is the type of thing I am talking about. I was raged on by Flow for her lack of intelligence.

there is NO reason to behave this way...or to tailgate on someone passing a slower moving vehicle.

I agree that Slow Flow (great choice btw) acted inappropriately. However obeying the law wasn’t the problem. The problem was because her head was up her rectum, and she couldn’t be bothered with driving since her BF was on the phone no doubt listening to complain about the price of her car insurance and her cell phone bill. Like most of those today with a liberal education she decided that her problems were somehow your fault.

[Bud White]

Lets not make it personal come one ...


But now i will say the speed limit here is mostly 65 or 70 depending where and what highway your on i go speed limit i drive more miles a year than most will do in 5..


I will drive in fast lane and usually do speed limit of 70 sure its not fast enough for most and we all have had call in but its still safe driving ya dont get tickits for that course here you get the bone head that will pass you on the shoulder while your doing 70 in the slow lane there just to many Aholes out there today ... there no excuse for road rage ... now will i say i dont get mad no but i dont try to run them over either

[RSSZ]

Betty must be outta town. You KNOW she'd have a comment or two.----

[SGeringer]

Thanks for the kind words and good discussion gentlemen.

While I can share AZG23's frustration with left lane lolligagging and WA state law DOES require the left (non HOV) lane of the freeway to be used only for passing, this was not the situation and no such law would apply were it a 2 lane interurban road (which it was not anyway). While I agree with the point made about frustration, I disagree with both it's relevance in this case, and that anything short of criminal behavior and immaturity can "cause" road rage. No harm, no hard feelings, just my $0.02.

[Lawrence Keeney]

she came home alive, thats the definition of a good day.

[Scott]

Your girlfriend did fine, she and Maddy got out of the situation safely.

A couple things for future thought.

I probably wouldn't have pulled into the drive thru with the Road Raging Idiot (RRI) on my tail. I would have driven him around until I found a cop or police station most likely.

Once realizing that RRI is going to follow me when I stop I would have the gun in hand but out of sight.

I also agree with the other guys about calling the police so that your report is on record. They likely won't do anything however. The LEOs I've spoken to say it's a big he said she said mess, and with no witnesses to the act, pretty unlikely anything will happen. If the RRI calls and tells a good story about a woman with a gun they might hunt down your GF though.

I did catch a State Police car at the side of the road just after being passed going down hill on a blind curve and the SP tore out after the gal who did it. I don't know what happened, but from talking to a SP I know he said people who do stupid stuff like that will usually have other violations. So they pull them over and start looking at them for violations.

-Scott-

[USP45]

You always have to think things thru and keep cool because regardless of what you did/did not do you don't know what that "fool" is thinking and it could be a life changing event that you cannot turn back.my example (and this guy IS a fool) starts after work on a friday me and a friend go to the range for some blastin fun all is great we leave and I have already re-loaded my magazines with the +p yada yada stuff that I carry and put it all back in thier cases for transport.my friend is driving, a van, on interstate 70 in indianapolis.obviously did something while driving but don't know what it was.I look out of my window and a guy is yelling(can't hear going about 60mph) at me and pointing a crome looking auto , I point this out to the driver so we slow down to get his aim off of us this doesn't work.the "fool" keeps trying to maintain a point of aim the only other thing I can think of is get off the hi-way @ the next off ramp because a few blocks from there is a nehborhhod police station.here is why I keep refeerrring to "fool" he follows us to the parking lot of the police station and THEN realises what he had done.he takes off driving like mad at the same time I am yelling to a ploice man comming out side at what is going on.we give him about a 20sec lead and slowly follow (so we dont get shot and still get to point him out)a few blocks up we see they have him.we get there and the police tell us they would take care of him and "teach him gun ettiquite" we say OK and drive past this "fool " shake our heads at him and then I told my friend that I was glad he never shot at us because I did not want to be put to the decision of using our pistols for defense.

in a previous post someone says she should not have pulled over in the drive thru but it did not matter becuase like with me he followed and did not let up.I am glad that I did not turn the "fool " and grab a gun since we just left the range and still had 8 magazines loaded.
my point use your head, so you dont end up in jail for ever because of some idiot, but if you gotta point it be sure you REALLY have to, and do what you have to do. I saw someone @ an intersection get out and walk up to another car stopped and punch another driver.you just dont know what people will do.

[CLASS3NH]

GREAT Post!
I LOVE hearing news of how somebody tharted a road rage, assault, robbery etc. Makes me feel happy, knowing the good guys AND LADIES are out there! Give your GF some roses for what she did! She was incredibly brave and cool-headed about the whole situation !

[spacemanspiff]

Please tell her "good job!"..but also dont let her hang out in the fast lane. This entire incident could have been avoided if she had just moved over..and realistically..I'd rather my wife avoid a situation, than get into one.

ahhhhh, the ol blaming the victims for the crime perpetrated upon them! i love that trick! right up there with the old standby: "she deserved to be raped, she was wearing an attractive outfit!"

wheres the puking smilie at?

[Betty]

SGeringer,
I'm really happy to see your girlfriend keep her cool and handle the situation well. Some people think ladies are easy pickings. Extra bonus points for the free drink.

While many drivers could use an ounce of courtesy to other drivers on the road, there's no excuse for road rage. Act like you own your life and your vehicle, not the road. There's a time and place to soapbox speech about slow pokes, and I don't see this thread as being a good example for it.

As a side note, both of my aunts were almost killed last week because of a reckless, inattentive driver who has caused SIX accidents within the past year. Their Jeep Cherokee had to be pried apart so they could be extracted. They're not in good shape. The road is no place for the inattentive, ill-tempered, and willfully ignorant.