JCC Incident involving maniac with road rage

Today I was driving home from work along a street between neighborhoods, going 45 mph (despite the posted 40 mph). Anyway, I did a lane change and while there was a motorcycle behind me, he was a very good distance back.

Nonetheless, he raced up to my tail, swerved around me and turned to flip me the bird (I presume he was probably going well over the posted 40 mph, though at the time of the lane change everything looked just fine). Well, as it turns out, when he turned around in his seat to flip me off, the road curved and he rode his bike up into the median.

Whatever, I shrugged it off and kept on my way. A few minutes after, I saw him racing down the road in my rearview mirror. He swerved in and out of what was now a single lane road, maneuvering through cars just to get right back on my tail.

I had just got off work, so needless to say, dealing with this was definitely not on the top of my list. Realizing I couldn't lead this moron back to my house, I turned into another neighborhood. He kept following me, tailing me with barely a foot of space between his bike and the rear bumper of my SUV. By this time, I was on the phone with 911 while I continued to circle through this neighborhood with him riding my rear.

Then, all of a sudden, he took off and left the neighborhood. 911 stayed on the line for a few minutes after to make sure he was gone and I filed a police report (though I couldn't get the guy's license plate).


Has anyone else encountered bothersome road rage incidents like this? Is it possible for such maniacs to track me down via my license plate number? I mean, his face was mere inches away from my license plate for a solid ten minutes. The incident continues to bother me, as I keep thinking about what if this had happened with my kids in the car. Or what if this maniac sees my SUV while I'm driving down that same street again, this time with the kids?

I've seen a lot of motorcycle drivers do a lot of stupid things on these roads, so when I told my neighbors of the incident they all shared similar stories. One neighbor even told me that something similar happened to him and he simply slammed on his brakes to get the biker off his tail (or to potentially paste the biker to his rear bumper, I suppose).

A few nights ago, I'd even seen another biker swerving in and out of traffic in a similar fashion and it just so happened that one of the cars he swerved past was a cop car. That was a satisfying sight.

 

I remember a biker going out of his way to get in front of me so he could flip me off and I'm pretty sure I hadn't done anything.
The following that long is a little odd but you'll never see him again.

 

Unless he lives around my neighborhood. We were in residential areas 10 minutes from my own neighborhood when it all happened. :/

 

Well, you did the correct thing by a) keep driving and not stopping, b) doing a pull off into an area not your own and c) calling 911 while doing it. All smart, non-escalating and appropriate activities.

Ender Sai would just accuse you of pulling a gun and shooting him dead.

 

i would have deployed the road spikes

 

You were correct in not stopping at your home or some place which wasn't too public. A guy I worked with was followed home by someone with a nasty case of road rage over something my co-worker had done while he was driving (what exactly it was that upset the guy was never revealed) and as soon as he got out of his car, the guy ran over his legs once, put his pickup into reverse, ran over his legs again and then drove off. A neighbor spotted the driver and the man was arrested that night and was later tried and convicted for attempted murder along with several other charges. My co-worker spent the next two years recovering from his injuries and re-learning how to walk. The incident was almost a decade ago and the guy still has a slight limp.

You also asked about looking you up by your license plate, most folks cannot. The few people who usually can (police, DMV employees, other gov't employees) could *possibly* do this, but the systems that have that sort of access are heavily monitored and the general rule with those is to look up information on a need to know basis. My mother was a social worker for the state years ago and had that ability. She had to have a reason, log it on a form, sign in, click OK on an agreement form (one which states about how it isn't for abuse, etc) and the whole session was logged so that anything out of the ordinary would trigger an alarm. Unless this guy has that kind of access and is willing to potentially lose his job over it then I'd say you're fine.

 

Thanks guys. Regarding license plates, can someone look up your plate on those sites you have to pay for? Like licenseplateslookup.com?

 

Interesting thread - nearly the same thing happened to me once, merging into a lane at full speed, and I'm convinced this truck was way behind me. But like your motorcycle was probably speeding, and started swerving by my right side on a freaking bridge. He rolled down his window and was yelling like a madman.

He was forced into the off ramp by his own rage and stupidity, but it made me paranoid for a while. All I can figure is he perceived that I cut him off. There are some real lunatics out there!

 

I definitely understand that paranoid feeling. Hopefully nothing more comes of my incident. I'm just still paranoid that he lives in the same residential area as me, if not in my exact neighborhood. Plus my car is pretty identifiable with my particular array of bumper stickers.

 

Should have just slammed on your brakes. He'd learn a quick thing or two about Newtonian physics.


If he survives the impact, that is.

 

I empathize with bikers. It's dangerous and many people seem to disregard them on the road. But road rage and a vehicular victim mentality are dangerous as well.

 

As a general rule, just assume all the drivers around you are reckless, angry, incompetent, and texting. You'll be pleasantly surprised when someone isn't any of that.

 

i had that happen with a truck too but i couldnt resist calmly cocking my head in a gesture of confusion, then, when he continued to yell, equally calmly smiling and flipping him off. fortunately he just continued accelerating as he leaned out his window flipping me off and screaming and eventually he was out of range

 

i drove through philadelphia once and every driver on the freeway was leaning out of their window and screaming.

 

I would've become super sayian and yell at the biker until his motorcycle explodes.

 

remove the bumper stickers. not because i think he's gonna track you down and kill you but because people shouldn't have bumper stickers as it is.

 

A decade ago I had to regularly drive through route 17 N in New Jersey. It was like a Mad Max film waiting to happen.

 

Are people in New Jersey always really angry?

 

Not really, just terrible drivers.

 

Luckily I haven't had an encounter like that. Just the usual ******** that gets into my lane in front of me without even using their signals.

 

reminds me of all this bullcrap going on:

 

YouTube Chuck Brodsky Blow em Away. Very apropos.

 

I just point my hand at them like a gun and pretend that I am shooting them dead.

 

I am curious, if someone points a gun at you while you are driving, do you have the right to smash into them to avoid them from taking a shot at you?