Road Rage - Small bump leading to assault.
Discussion
So yesterday I was involved in a small bump which was then an assault.
Two lanes, merging into one. I merged admittedly quite late, but I am of the opinion you should use all the road available. Ahead of me is a silver BMW 3-series. To my left and slightly behind a black Nissan Navara.
Indicating left, I moved forward and as a gap appeared behind the BMW as he moved forward in traffic, I began to merge. The Nissan driver decided she was having none of this and edged closer. In fact, she edged a little too close and hit me.
We were at a crawling pace. I drive an automatic so at this point my right foot was just on the brake. Not pressing firmly, but enough to be bringing the car to a slow stop. As the Nissan hit the side of me, I jumped, startled, and my foot came up off the brake. This meant my car moved forward again and came to stop against the rear bumper of the BMW.
At this point I would have pulled over to exchange details, but the black Nissan had driven down the side of me and her rear door was level with my wing mirror on the passenger side. Meanwhile I was nose-to-tail with the BMW.
The BMW driver got out, I opened my door to exchange numbers and so on, and he said “YOU f
kING !” and punched me. He then came close to me and said “C’mon then! fking do something!” so I just put my hands up beside my head and said “No, no way” and got back in the car to call 999.
He mouthed off about me calling the police and so on, and then he drove forward a bit, allowing me to pull off the road to a side street. At this point I realised I’d lost my glasses and found them in the road. Smashed. I assumed he knocked them off my face and a car had driven over them.
It took a good hour for the police to arrive (on foot!) but eventually they got there. Words were had. The woman in the Nissan denied seeing anything but saw enough to claim I pushed him backwards. He of course denied everything.
The police told me I could be done for driving without due care for trying to merge in a gap which wasn’t there and that, without a witness, he couldn’t de done for anything.
Luckily, a man on a building site adjacent to us had come over earlier to my car and told me some other guy called Darren had seen the whole thing. Cue the police trying to find Darren.
Darren told them what he saw. Essentially BMW driver thumped me and knocked my glasses off and that I just got back in my car. With this evidence presented BMW driver changes his version and also admits to ‘accidentally’ stepping on my glasses.
Tables turned and after much to-and-fro the outcome is that I’ll pay for the Nissan to be repaired without going through insurance, and in return for not pressing charges for assault, BMW driver won’t go through my insurance either for the ding on his bumper. But I will need to buy myself new glasses.
I'm now waiting to hear from the Nissan driver about how much this scratch down her car's gonna cost me. Stupidly, I didn't take a photo of the damage and haven't even seen it myself. After we pulled over I kept well away from the pair of them and let the police do the talking between us.
Two lanes, merging into one. I merged admittedly quite late, but I am of the opinion you should use all the road available. Ahead of me is a silver BMW 3-series. To my left and slightly behind a black Nissan Navara.
Indicating left, I moved forward and as a gap appeared behind the BMW as he moved forward in traffic, I began to merge. The Nissan driver decided she was having none of this and edged closer. In fact, she edged a little too close and hit me.
We were at a crawling pace. I drive an automatic so at this point my right foot was just on the brake. Not pressing firmly, but enough to be bringing the car to a slow stop. As the Nissan hit the side of me, I jumped, startled, and my foot came up off the brake. This meant my car moved forward again and came to stop against the rear bumper of the BMW.
At this point I would have pulled over to exchange details, but the black Nissan had driven down the side of me and her rear door was level with my wing mirror on the passenger side. Meanwhile I was nose-to-tail with the BMW.
The BMW driver got out, I opened my door to exchange numbers and so on, and he said “YOU f
kING !” and punched me. He then came close to me and said “C’mon then! fking do something!” so I just put my hands up beside my head and said “No, no way” and got back in the car to call 999.He mouthed off about me calling the police and so on, and then he drove forward a bit, allowing me to pull off the road to a side street. At this point I realised I’d lost my glasses and found them in the road. Smashed. I assumed he knocked them off my face and a car had driven over them.
It took a good hour for the police to arrive (on foot!) but eventually they got there. Words were had. The woman in the Nissan denied seeing anything but saw enough to claim I pushed him backwards. He of course denied everything.
The police told me I could be done for driving without due care for trying to merge in a gap which wasn’t there and that, without a witness, he couldn’t de done for anything.
Luckily, a man on a building site adjacent to us had come over earlier to my car and told me some other guy called Darren had seen the whole thing. Cue the police trying to find Darren.
Darren told them what he saw. Essentially BMW driver thumped me and knocked my glasses off and that I just got back in my car. With this evidence presented BMW driver changes his version and also admits to ‘accidentally’ stepping on my glasses.
Tables turned and after much to-and-fro the outcome is that I’ll pay for the Nissan to be repaired without going through insurance, and in return for not pressing charges for assault, BMW driver won’t go through my insurance either for the ding on his bumper. But I will need to buy myself new glasses.
I'm now waiting to hear from the Nissan driver about how much this scratch down her car's gonna cost me. Stupidly, I didn't take a photo of the damage and haven't even seen it myself. After we pulled over I kept well away from the pair of them and let the police do the talking between us.
Sorry to hear about that - sounds like you were sandwiched between a right pair of berks, but:
fk that. Do him.
romeogolf said:
...and in return for not pressing charges for assault, BMW driver won’t go through my insurance either for the ding on his bumper. But I will need to buy myself new glasses.
f
k that. Do him. berlintaxi said:
Good find. I wonder if OP is going to have 2nd thoughts about his approach to merging now? This bit in particular:"A friend is arguing that I'm the knob who sails past in the outside lane and expects to be let in after queue-jumping"
As said above, disgusting behaviour from the BMW driver - actually awful.
Given you're 25 though, I would have thought your insurance would have been okay and therefore I'd have proceeded down the route of stuffing the BMW driver. He's an angry little man in a 3-Series (probably a company car) so I can't believe having even just a caution for assault would go down well with his employer.
Little tt.
Given you're 25 though, I would have thought your insurance would have been okay and therefore I'd have proceeded down the route of stuffing the BMW driver. He's an angry little man in a 3-Series (probably a company car) so I can't believe having even just a caution for assault would go down well with his employer.
Little t
t.SarGara said:
berlintaxi said:
Good find. I wonder if OP is going to have 2nd thoughts about his approach to merging now? This bit in particular:"A friend is arguing that I'm the knob who sails past in the outside lane and expects to be let in after queue-jumping"
I think this went a lot worse for you than it should of. BUT, I hate people like you that think their journey is more important than other people's and cut in at the last minute when people like me have been queuing for 5 minutes or so. Maybe in the future you'll just join the back of the queue now?
SarGara said:
berlintaxi said:
Good find. I wonder if OP is going to have 2nd thoughts about his approach to merging now? This bit in particular:"A friend is arguing that I'm the knob who sails past in the outside lane and expects to be let in after queue-jumping"
romeogolf said:
No witnesses to it and the police were of the opinion of many other drivers that I should have merged earlier or just 'let her go'. The law isn't on my side.
Which is toss balls because the Highway Code states otherwise. Also the assault is worrying, you really should have pressed charges, in saving yourself a few quid on insurance (minor scrapes rarely adjust premiums much) you've let a raging nutcase get away without a black mark on his name.Al U said:
I think this went a lot worse for you than it should of. BUT, I hate people like you that think their journey is more important than other people's and cut in at the last minute when people like me have been queuing for 5 minutes or so. Maybe in the future you'll just join the back of the queue now?
Typical British queueing mentality, use the road, merge properly. No need for hate.Al U said:
I think this went a lot worse for you than it should of. BUT, I hate people like you that think their journey is more important than other people's and cut in at the last minute when people like me have been queuing for 5 minutes or so. Maybe in the future you'll just join the back of the queue now?
Neither journey is more important. There were two lines of traffic, solid traffic off a roundabout. Merging at any point would mean going in front of another car. I had perhaps a car's length before the cones and another car or two behind me also waiting to merge. There is no reason, with my indicator on and being half way across to then next lane, that the Nissan driver should have forced her way forward into me.This is the merge in question. It's a very short stretch of road, straight off a round about. Two lanes of traffic queue to merge at that point.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=50.898137,-1.407...
romeogolf said:
The merge point is where it is for a reason.
It's more of a last chance saloon to be truthful.romeogolf said:
There was no excuse for the Nissan driver to be so forceful as to not want to let me in front of her. There were also 2 cars (at least) behind me also waiting to merge at this point. In future, I'll obviously be more cautious, but I'm not going to merge 3 miles before required just because some idiot up ahead thinks they deserve to be first. The point of a merge point is that's where you're meant to merge.
As you've found your behaviour - morally right in theory - in practice causes road rage, so you got smacked in the face and into bother with the police. Sometimes theory and practice don't work out the same.Al U said:
I think this went a lot worse for you than it should of. BUT, I hate people like you that think their journey is more important than other people's and cut in at the last minute when people like me have been queuing for 5 minutes or so. Maybe in the future you'll just join the back of the queue now?
If it's a 2 lane road, that merges into one, you should use both lanes to cut down on congestion! Then merge ant the merging point!The amount of idiots I see sat in a blocked inside lane with an empty outside lane is hilarious! If people were not so ignorant, merging 1 by 1 would make life easier and smoother for all!
In the instance you talk about, if he can move along and cut in, why the hell were you sat queuing for 5 min?
OP, sorry to hear about your issue! It sounds like the stubborn Nissan drive put her car at risk for the sake of one upmanship! The BMW driver was a thug! Life is full of these cretins unfortunately.
Edited by RXED on Tuesday 11th November 08:48
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