Ever been chased by a crazed road rage driver?
Discussion
Hello,
Reading the R8 post reminded me of an incident that left me shaking and genuinely scared.
I had been visiting my mum who, at the time, lived just off a dual carriageway. I was fairly young, probably about 22 (about 3 years ago) and was driving an 03 plate Vauxhall VX220. It was a hot day and had the roof off, wasn't intended on driving quickly, it was busy, rush hour and I was just enjoying the sunshine.
I pulled out onto the dual carriageway (extremely busy, usually stop start or crawling speed during rush hour), it was a 40mph limit. I proceeded up to the roundabout and doubled back on myself. I was in the right hand (overtaking) lane approaching the roundabout, went round the roundabout in the same lane and re-entered the dual carriageway going back in the opposite direction still in the right hand lane, indicating and checking my mirrors correctly.
Someone in a pikey hatchback (think it was a battered old Golf or Polo) entered the roundabout on my third exit (4 exit roundabout so I was leaving on my forth exit). He looked like a very rough late 20 something pikey chav style of person! He entered the roundabout and took his first exit and entered onto the dual carriageway in the left hand lane. Nothing wrong there, it was still very slow traffic and we were crawling into the roundabout. There was a little gap ahead of my car and his car, we were pretty much neck and neck as we entered the dual carriageway. (I'm going into a lot of detail here aren't it?!?!?!) I planted my foot just a little to catch up with the traffic ahead and he nailed it to try and undertake me for some reason. He then decided he was really annoyed that I wouldn't let him undertake him so he sounded his horn several times and started waving his hands out the window at me!! I made a kind of "What?" gesture with both hands, above my head which seemed to have pissed him off.
The road speed had picked up a bit here from crawling up to 30-40mph or so I would have thought. He got into my lane and proceeded to travel almost touching my bumper, flashing his lights, sounding his horn and yelling out the window for me to pull over. I tried to ignore him but it was hard with him so close to my bumper (on the fibreglass VX220 clam shell!) He kept trying to over take and force me to pull over by swerving into the side of my car, cutting in front and slamming his brakes on. I was pretty shaken by this time (I was 22, quite tall but not exactly well built, I only weigh about 10 stone and not that good at confrontations!) We entered another roundabout, he was behind me at this point, I indicated left, in the left lane but drove straight on, couldn't shake him off, he just followed sticking to my bumper. In the end I got to another roundabout, an exit straight ahead and an exit to the right, both dual carriageways. He had overtaken again at this point, I indicated to the left to indicated I was going straight over, he exited and I carried onto the right. This was a bloody scary manoeuvre as it was busy so difficult to quickly change from the exit lane on the roundabout and carry on round.
I then saw him in the mirror stop his car and TURN IT AROUND on a busy dual carriage, proceed the wrong way down the dual carriageway, enter the roundabout and continue to follow me. At this point I was on a much less congested dual carriageway and decided to try and loose him through speed. Travelling at a very high speed I tried my best to cover ground and loose him, but I was aware I was in a very recognisable car and I was travelling up a steep hill so we could easily see me from quite a distance. Then I approached a roundabout, controlled by traffic lights!! I still can't believe how lucky I was, as I approached the roundabout the lights turned green and the traffic flowed freely round the roundabout. As I went through the lights turned red and I turned back into my parents road and parked the car right at the back of the housing estate and had a drink at my mums house to calm down!!
What drives people to endanger themselves, myself and other road users to such an extent for such a stupid reason?! I wasn't endangering him, I wasn't trying to race him, I was only half aware he was there and wanted to undertake, I was simply enjoying a little acceleration pull off the roundabout! I really could not believe how someone would want to, have the time to, or have the balls to do something like this. I could have had a big bat or a knife or anything in my car if he did end up boxing me in and pulling me over. Likewise, I sure as hell wasn't going to pull over and find out what he wanted! Scary stuff and it still makes me shakey thinking about it. I'm an incredibly placid person.
Any experiences like this you'd like to share?
Dan
Reading the R8 post reminded me of an incident that left me shaking and genuinely scared.
I had been visiting my mum who, at the time, lived just off a dual carriageway. I was fairly young, probably about 22 (about 3 years ago) and was driving an 03 plate Vauxhall VX220. It was a hot day and had the roof off, wasn't intended on driving quickly, it was busy, rush hour and I was just enjoying the sunshine.
I pulled out onto the dual carriageway (extremely busy, usually stop start or crawling speed during rush hour), it was a 40mph limit. I proceeded up to the roundabout and doubled back on myself. I was in the right hand (overtaking) lane approaching the roundabout, went round the roundabout in the same lane and re-entered the dual carriageway going back in the opposite direction still in the right hand lane, indicating and checking my mirrors correctly.
Someone in a pikey hatchback (think it was a battered old Golf or Polo) entered the roundabout on my third exit (4 exit roundabout so I was leaving on my forth exit). He looked like a very rough late 20 something pikey chav style of person! He entered the roundabout and took his first exit and entered onto the dual carriageway in the left hand lane. Nothing wrong there, it was still very slow traffic and we were crawling into the roundabout. There was a little gap ahead of my car and his car, we were pretty much neck and neck as we entered the dual carriageway. (I'm going into a lot of detail here aren't it?!?!?!) I planted my foot just a little to catch up with the traffic ahead and he nailed it to try and undertake me for some reason. He then decided he was really annoyed that I wouldn't let him undertake him so he sounded his horn several times and started waving his hands out the window at me!! I made a kind of "What?" gesture with both hands, above my head which seemed to have pissed him off.
The road speed had picked up a bit here from crawling up to 30-40mph or so I would have thought. He got into my lane and proceeded to travel almost touching my bumper, flashing his lights, sounding his horn and yelling out the window for me to pull over. I tried to ignore him but it was hard with him so close to my bumper (on the fibreglass VX220 clam shell!) He kept trying to over take and force me to pull over by swerving into the side of my car, cutting in front and slamming his brakes on. I was pretty shaken by this time (I was 22, quite tall but not exactly well built, I only weigh about 10 stone and not that good at confrontations!) We entered another roundabout, he was behind me at this point, I indicated left, in the left lane but drove straight on, couldn't shake him off, he just followed sticking to my bumper. In the end I got to another roundabout, an exit straight ahead and an exit to the right, both dual carriageways. He had overtaken again at this point, I indicated to the left to indicated I was going straight over, he exited and I carried onto the right. This was a bloody scary manoeuvre as it was busy so difficult to quickly change from the exit lane on the roundabout and carry on round.
I then saw him in the mirror stop his car and TURN IT AROUND on a busy dual carriage, proceed the wrong way down the dual carriageway, enter the roundabout and continue to follow me. At this point I was on a much less congested dual carriageway and decided to try and loose him through speed. Travelling at a very high speed I tried my best to cover ground and loose him, but I was aware I was in a very recognisable car and I was travelling up a steep hill so we could easily see me from quite a distance. Then I approached a roundabout, controlled by traffic lights!! I still can't believe how lucky I was, as I approached the roundabout the lights turned green and the traffic flowed freely round the roundabout. As I went through the lights turned red and I turned back into my parents road and parked the car right at the back of the housing estate and had a drink at my mums house to calm down!!
What drives people to endanger themselves, myself and other road users to such an extent for such a stupid reason?! I wasn't endangering him, I wasn't trying to race him, I was only half aware he was there and wanted to undertake, I was simply enjoying a little acceleration pull off the roundabout! I really could not believe how someone would want to, have the time to, or have the balls to do something like this. I could have had a big bat or a knife or anything in my car if he did end up boxing me in and pulling me over. Likewise, I sure as hell wasn't going to pull over and find out what he wanted! Scary stuff and it still makes me shakey thinking about it. I'm an incredibly placid person.
Any experiences like this you'd like to share?
Dan
Monkey news said:
P.s I did have an Italian flag on my car, well 4 
so maybe it had something to do with that
so maybe it had something to do with that 
Seems a completely alien mindset to me. If he's annoyed that these drivers think we may have held up their acceleration somewhat, why are they so persistent on chasing us or stopping their cars in the road and having a go/stabbing/being generally pikey at us?! Just get on with your life and enjoy yourself. Strange people.....
Adam_W said:
Only time its happened to me id somehow managed to upset a van with 3 blokes in it, they were tailgating and giving me all sorts abuse in mu rear view mirror, i locked the car at this point, stopped at a light controlled roundabout and one of the guys jumped out and tried to open my door, when he realised it was locked he knocked on my window, lights had changed at this point so i 'burned off' in my diesel astra, they followed but i took a few turns and with some driving i wasnt exactly happy with did lose them
Yeah, you don't half feel exposed and vulnerable in a little fibreglass convertible car with the roof off! I sure as hell wasn't stopping at the roundabout if the lights had of been red! freecar said:
Why don't you call the police?
It's pretty simple and they would have a car there pretty quickly, especially if you mention that you fear for your safety and would it be OK to Vmax your motor to escape!!!!
What whilst driving? It's pretty simple and they would have a car there pretty quickly, especially if you mention that you fear for your safety and would it be OK to Vmax your motor to escape!!!!
Plus it takes a good few hours to find your phone after a "spirited" drive in a VX220, or an Elise for that matter. It's a well known fact that the phone WILL slide off the passenger seat, either whilst braking or cornering then end up banging around on the ally floor under the seat. Seeing as the passenger seat isn't adjustable it takes forever to cut down an allen key and remove the seat to find your phone and all the change rattling around under there!
Seriously though, I didn't even get a chance to get his registration, I only had one thought, get out of his sight. As previously mentioned, I felt very vulnerable with the roof off. Should have reported him but I wasn't even sure of the model of car so it would have been pointless.
I read this:
[Quote] He died after meeting his fiancé Josephine Gibb and telling her he would be giving her an engagement ring the next day. She was driving along the same route he had taken when she encountered a police diversion around the accident and was informed of his death a few hours later. [/Quote]
and thought how sad, then read the rest of it and don't quite know what to make of it now. What a strange chap and a horrible outcome for the person he crashed into. It doesn't say what happened to the driver of the car he crashed his Suzuki into, strangely.
[Quote] He died after meeting his fiancé Josephine Gibb and telling her he would be giving her an engagement ring the next day. She was driving along the same route he had taken when she encountered a police diversion around the accident and was informed of his death a few hours later. [/Quote]
and thought how sad, then read the rest of it and don't quite know what to make of it now. What a strange chap and a horrible outcome for the person he crashed into. It doesn't say what happened to the driver of the car he crashed his Suzuki into, strangely.
Edited by danyeates on Friday 25th June 23:34
Edited by danyeates on Friday 25th June 23:35
Edited by danyeates on Friday 25th June 23:35
OllieWinchester said:
OP, your story didn't take place in the Twickenham area did it?
I had an 'incident' once in that area where a fully fledged psychopath in a battered Mk2 Golf took umbrage at me shaking my head at his truly atrocious driving. What followed was approximately half an hour of him locking up all four wheels of his car in front of me trying to get me to stop, him driving over kerbs in order to try and get in front of me, and him parking his car across all lanes of traffic on a roundabout on the A316 and getting out to try and stop me. After having enough of this I phoned the police and started giving them a running commentary. They advised I pull into a petrol station to and hope he went away which seemed to work. This was until I pulled out of the forecourt with some trepidation about 5 minutes later only to find him standing in the road with the most crazed look on his face I have ever seen, waving a brick. We had a small face off with me stationary, holding up the traffic behind me, and him gesticulating wildly. In the end (I don't know why either) I just dropped the clutch and raced straight at him. He leapt out of the way at the last minute and the brick which was intended for my windscreen ended up leaving a sizeable dent in the side of my van.
Genuinely shaking with fear for a while after that. He wasn't a big bloke, but I've never seen someones face so distorted with rage over something so trivial. Went to press charges and it turns out that this wasn't the first time he had done something like this. Unfortunately the police expected me to keep coming up to Twickenham to sign stuff etc,(Over an hour each way) so he just got a caution in the end.
No, it didn't. It occurred in Bournemouth. Sorry to hear about your experienceI had an 'incident' once in that area where a fully fledged psychopath in a battered Mk2 Golf took umbrage at me shaking my head at his truly atrocious driving. What followed was approximately half an hour of him locking up all four wheels of his car in front of me trying to get me to stop, him driving over kerbs in order to try and get in front of me, and him parking his car across all lanes of traffic on a roundabout on the A316 and getting out to try and stop me. After having enough of this I phoned the police and started giving them a running commentary. They advised I pull into a petrol station to and hope he went away which seemed to work. This was until I pulled out of the forecourt with some trepidation about 5 minutes later only to find him standing in the road with the most crazed look on his face I have ever seen, waving a brick. We had a small face off with me stationary, holding up the traffic behind me, and him gesticulating wildly. In the end (I don't know why either) I just dropped the clutch and raced straight at him. He leapt out of the way at the last minute and the brick which was intended for my windscreen ended up leaving a sizeable dent in the side of my van.
Genuinely shaking with fear for a while after that. He wasn't a big bloke, but I've never seen someones face so distorted with rage over something so trivial. Went to press charges and it turns out that this wasn't the first time he had done something like this. Unfortunately the police expected me to keep coming up to Twickenham to sign stuff etc,(Over an hour each way) so he just got a caution in the end.
rottie102 said:
To all the "men" whinging in this thread -
As mr T says:
and stand up to bullies. Otherwise they will keep doing it if all you can do is run away with tail between your legs and complain on the net later .
Most of them are cowards and will back down as soon as confronted.
Sorry, but WTF?!?As mr T says:
and stand up to bullies. Otherwise they will keep doing it if all you can do is run away with tail between your legs and complain on the net later
.Most of them are cowards and will back down as soon as confronted.
Edited by rottie102 on Saturday 26th June 10:33
Not all of us want confrontations and to be threatened with violence. All this talk of "let's sort this out like men!" crap does my f
king head in. "Like men?" Is that what "Men" should do???? Fight to prove who is the bigger man? Or is it just all down to talk? We're not animals fighting each other for territory or the fairer sex, we're supposed to be a civilised society. If someone cuts me up or makes a mistake whilst driving I will usually look at them in the eye from my car and wait for some sort of acknowledgement of their mistake, if they wave sorry, then great, I'll acknowledge it, if not I'm not going to ask them for a fight FFS. I've got much more important things to worry about. I simply don't even give it a second thought, at all. The thought of revenge or letting them know they've inconvenienced me somehow wouldn't even cross my mind. And to say "Most of them are cowards and will back down as soon as confronted' is all good and well, but what was I supposed to do? Stop, pull over and find out exactly why he tried so damn hard to get me to pull over? I doubt it was for a nice friendly chat was it? I have no weapons as such in my car, I don't care for a broken nose, I've never been in a fight and don't plan on getting in one either. If most of them will back down, then surely there's a percentage that will pull a knife or have a good punch or enjoy keying or denting (cracking fibreglass) cars. I would rather not sodding well find out thanks!!!!!!!!!! I aint gonna be the one to "Teach him a lesson". I have much more important things to worry about.
Rant over.
Edited by danyeates on Saturday 26th June 17:12
ben_h100 said:
Maybe it's because he didn't like the fact one of his peers (agewise) was driving something worth ten times his car and he was jealous, I don't know.
Possibly, I know the people on my street haven't been that inviting since my girlfriend and I moved into our house. A few of them are council houses and our house is probably the nicest on the street, with the nicest car, and we're certainly the youngest by a long way, so kind of get used to the jealousy. One of them is really friendly, but seems to mope about not having a job to me, then comment on how often we go on holiday. In a kind of friendly way, but I know he kind of resents me for it. Not very nice jealousy, kind of feel like outsiders!Someone once said to me, always buy the worst house in the nicest area, not vice versa, or something along those lines, quite good advice strangely enough. Anyway I've wondered off topic somewhat.
Ry_B said:
Got chased in my RX8 about 12 months ago.
Was just minding my own business, working the wankel through some twisties. Came out of them and into a village, 4 young males appeared behind my car and tailgate me (me sticking to the limit as it was a village) we then get to the NSL and obviously I floored it off as it was now safe to do so.
As I went to floor it off, I saw them on my right (trying to overtake) in the wrong lane, no problem I thought I won't hold them up as they only in a Vectra. Completely loose them through the twisties and thought nothing of it. 5 minutes and 10 miles later down the road I had parked up and was takling to my mate on his drive. These nutters re appeared and pulled over, all frothing at the mouth shouting various obsceneties.
I asked what the problem was, their reply? "Just cuz you got a fast car you think you're hard innit" to which I laughed and said no to. The one that had a maglight type torch and was geting closer
Is there an end to this story?! Was just minding my own business, working the wankel through some twisties. Came out of them and into a village, 4 young males appeared behind my car and tailgate me (me sticking to the limit as it was a village) we then get to the NSL and obviously I floored it off as it was now safe to do so.
As I went to floor it off, I saw them on my right (trying to overtake) in the wrong lane, no problem I thought I won't hold them up as they only in a Vectra. Completely loose them through the twisties and thought nothing of it. 5 minutes and 10 miles later down the road I had parked up and was takling to my mate on his drive. These nutters re appeared and pulled over, all frothing at the mouth shouting various obsceneties.
I asked what the problem was, their reply? "Just cuz you got a fast car you think you're hard innit" to which I laughed and said no to. The one that had a maglight type torch and was geting closer
Edited by danyeates on Saturday 26th June 23:01
cambiker71 said:
Driving home from my parents late one night in my series 2a diesel Landrover, pottering along at around 45mph (55mph is about flat out) on a long straight near home I'm aware of a car catching me quickly so I pull to the left as far as possible to allow it to pass, nothing coming along the other way at all. This car drives right up to the back of the Landrover so close I can't see his headlamps anymore and proceeds to do this for the next mile or so, then I get the dropping back and roaring up behind me and flashing his lights, so I pull almost onto the grass verge he still follows right behind me so I start to slow down wondering then if it's a local bored copper. As I get below 30 it pulls up beside me and low and behold it's a near scrap Vauxhall Nova with passengers waving beer cans at me for whatever reason through the open windows then brakes hard and sits on my rear end again.
Still at less then 30mph I'm approaching the turn off into my village so I turn on all four rear work lamps and light the Nova up in it's full glory then drive on to the verge just before the turning without slowing and drive across several grassy bumps and hollows (and a kerb or two), it dropped back after that, fairly sharply really and stopped whilst still half on, half off the road. I often wonder if it was because of any damage from his bit of "follow my leader" off roading or he had just got bored with the slow pursuit. No idea why this car picked on me in this way, but even in the Landrover I still felt very threatened.
Genius, that's great!Still at less then 30mph I'm approaching the turn off into my village so I turn on all four rear work lamps and light the Nova up in it's full glory then drive on to the verge just before the turning without slowing and drive across several grassy bumps and hollows (and a kerb or two), it dropped back after that, fairly sharply really and stopped whilst still half on, half off the road. I often wonder if it was because of any damage from his bit of "follow my leader" off roading or he had just got bored with the slow pursuit. No idea why this car picked on me in this way, but even in the Landrover I still felt very threatened.
Aphex said:
I was waiting for an oncoming car down my street, a peugeot behind me starts to bib. I had a quick look and saw a girl driving and thought nothing more of it, she couldn't see the car coming as I could due to the parked cars in front of us. She then drove past with her boyfriend swearing at me from the passenger seat. I geticulated back and off they went, diving into a tiny space for the oncoming car.
Once the car had come past I drove on up the road to see the pug halfway across the road with the guy sprinting down the street. he looked a bit mental and anyone that thinks they can run at a car isn't someone I necessarily want to tango with so proceeded to drive past him, he slammed his hands on my windown as we went past ( I was even courteous enough not to run him over as it was outside my house).
Then to my utter bemusement he started running after the car (in a full suit, pink shirt and tie) so I drove round the block and by that time they had left.
Funny thing is I live with him now and we're good mates haha
That is a strange story!!Once the car had come past I drove on up the road to see the pug halfway across the road with the guy sprinting down the street. he looked a bit mental and anyone that thinks they can run at a car isn't someone I necessarily want to tango with so proceeded to drive past him, he slammed his hands on my windown as we went past ( I was even courteous enough not to run him over as it was outside my house).
Then to my utter bemusement he started running after the car (in a full suit, pink shirt and tie) so I drove round the block and by that time they had left.
Funny thing is I live with him now and we're good mates haha
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