Any likely follow-up to dangerous driving?

[newusername123]

I thought I’d post this under a different username just in case any details come back to me! Unfortunately that means I cannot post in Speed, Plod and The Law, but I was interested in getting opinions.

I was involved in quite a worrying road rage incident yesterday, and just wondering what (if any) action I should expect from the police.

In summary, I noticed a young-ish guy driving very erratically in traffic behind me, repeated dangerous overtaking, forcing oncoming traffic to brake to avoid him, cutting back in too close etc.

For some reason, he decided to single me out for special treatment. He overtook me and then kept braking hard and swerving in front of me over the course of about 4-5 miles. Every time I turned off he would follow (or turnaround if he was ahead of me at that time)

This culminated in him forcing me to stop and both occupants getting out of the car. He punched my passenger-side window as hard as he could. The only reason it didn’t break I was able to pull away at exactly that moment, reducing the impact.

He gave chase again, but eventually gave up as we approached a town where I planned to drive to the police station. As he had seemingly disappeared, we didn’t go to the police station, and my passenger called them instead to report and get a crime reference number.

Is this something that the police are likely to follow up? We have a small amount of video footage that shows the registration number and some erratic driving, but unfortunately not the most incriminating parts. The start of the incident was on major roads that I'd expect would be covered by cameras.

Edited by newusername123 on Monday 27th July 11:43

[itsnotarace]

In my experience the police do take such reports seriously, especially if you have video footage to back up.

[vonhosen]

They'll want all your video footage, not just the bits you select.

[swampy442]

vonhosen said:

They'll want all your video footage, not just the bits you select.

You're thinking what I'm thinking.

[Benbay001]

vonhosen said:

They'll want all your video footage, not just the bits you select.

And so does PH.

[xjay1337]

Benbay001 said:

vonhosen said:

They'll want all your video footage, not just the bits you select.

And so does PH.

I think this needs to be shared!

[Muzzer79]

newusername123 said:

We have a small amount of video footage that shows the registration number and some erratic driving, but unfortunately not the most incriminating parts.

I assume this is because your passenger was filming on a phone and only commenced once the incident was in progress and the 'worst' of it had occurred?

Rather than a dashcam or similar?

[eybic]

Good to see the mods reading posts, OP said he cannot post in S,P&L as it's a new account so unless it's moved back, he won't be able to reply.

[Scrump]

eybic said:

Good to see the mods reading posts, OP said he cannot post in S,P&L as it's a new account so unless it's moved back, he won't be able to reply.

the OP will (maybe) be along soon to show how wrong you are.

[newusername123]

eybic said:

Good to see the mods reading posts, OP said he cannot post in S,P&L as it's a new account so unless it's moved back, he won't be able to reply.

Just tested that but it seems I can.

[Big Al.]

eybic said:

Good to see the mods reading posts, OP said he cannot post in S,P&L as it's a new account so unless it's moved back, he won't be able to reply.

We are usually always on the ball, as you well know.

Access already granted.

[anonymous-user]

There are more often than not at least two sides to a story. Even homicidal maniacs tend to have at least some criteria for selecting their victims.

Well done for reporting, some poor sod may end up far worse than a broken window next time the nutter decides he's in a bad mood.

[eybic]

Big Al. said:

eybic said:

Good to see the mods reading posts, OP said he cannot post in S,P&L as it's a new account so unless it's moved back, he won't be able to reply.

We are usually always on the ball, as you well know.

Access already granted.

Apologies

[newusername123]

Muzzer79 said:

I assume this is because your passenger was filming on a phone and only commenced once the incident was in progress and the 'worst' of it had occurred?

Rather than a dashcam or similar?

Yes, I don't have a dash cam unfortunately, that will soon be remedied. My passenger started filming after the initial bout of bad driving had occurred, but stopped to use the phone to call the police when it was clear that the incident was going to become protracted.

The filming appears to be what escalated the drivers response. Once he saw that was taking place he stepped up his efforts to actually force me to stop and when we did both he and his passenger approached the passenger side of my car which leads me to believe they might have been going after the phone. At the end of the film, he turned and can clearly be seen smiling and laughing, but that changed when he saw the camera.

That was the only thing that actually allowed us to get away. If one of them had approached my side of the car, I wouldn't have been able to safely get around him and his car to escape.

The initial police response on the phone was excellent. They kept my passenger on the phone until we had confirmed we had definitely lost them, and took all of the pertinent details. Their main interest was in the fact that the passenger shook the contents of a bottle of water over the passenger side of my car. This was obviously because they thought it could be a corrosive substace, but that definitely wasn't the case.

[Big Al.]

eybic said:

Apologies

[newusername123]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

There are more often than not at least two sides to a story. Even homicidal maniacs tend to have at least some criteria for selecting their victims.

Yes, that was the part that worried me the most. If I pee'd him off earlier with some bad driving of my own then I could have understood it, but I can't recall anything like that (perhaps I'm just a bad driver in general )

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Well done for reporting, some poor sod may end up far worse than a broken window next time the nutter decides he's in a bad mood.

That's what I was hoping for really. We were really lucky to get out of this one without serious consequences, and that luck won't always be repeated. Hopefully they'll be able to log this against the registration and it might help when/if he does something like this again.

[RB Will]

newusername123 said:

That was the only thing that actually allowed us to get away. If one of them had approached my side of the car, I wouldn't have been able to safely get around him and his car to escape.

You are a better man than me. If I had been in your situation I probably would have been looking to run him over at that point.

[Oilchange]

If some angry scumbag boxed me in and i had my daughter in the car and i honestly thought he was going to assault us, he’d better learn to leap or he’s getting tyre rash...

[newusername123]

RB Will said:

You are a better man than me. If I had been in your situation I probably would have been looking to run him over at that point.

Oilchange said:

If some angry scumbag boxed me in and i had my daughter in the car and i honestly thought he was going to assault us, he’d better learn to leap or he’s getting tyre rash...

All sorts of things raced through my mind at that moment, but I really didn't want it to escalate further to a situation where I was on the hook for injuring or killing someone by running them over! Although this all started on a busy stretch of road, we were on a backroad by this time, so I doubt there would have been any fixed cameras to prove my innocence.

As ridiculous as it sounds, I also think I didn't realise quite how serious the situation was until we'd escaped it. A mix of adrenaline and never having been involved in anything similar before.

The plan I settled on was to smash my door open as hard as I could in the hope that it would knock him over and surprise him for just long enough for me to drive off. As it was he went to the passenger side so I fortunately didn't need to do that.

Thanks for all of the thoughts on this, I'm off to peruse the dashcam forum...

[tarquin274]

I wonder what the op did to set him off? Still, I guess we'll never get to know the real truth..