You should videotape these kinds of incidents with your cellphone in case you need evidence should something go to far. Or you upload the video to youtube to publicly shame the nut cases.

I witnessed a terrible case of road rage. At the time, I didn't know what happened (now I do) but we were all stopped at a red light when two guys jumped out, one jumped on another car's windshield and another guy put his fist through the (closed) passenger door window, shattering it. He then proceeded to what I thought was repeatedly punch the passenger, but what he was trying to was drag the (female) passenger out the window but couldn't because she had her seatbelt on. The people in the car eventually squeezed by the other cars stopped in front of them and the guys jumped in the car and sped off chasing them. I got the plates.

So yes, I've witnessed a road rage incident.

I had a guy follow me for 15 miles on the NYS thruway once. He'd tried to cut in front of me when traffic in his lane came to a crawl but there wasn't enough time for me to slow down or stop to let him in (he tried to fly up on my right and get in at the very last second). He got super pissed I didn't let him in even though I couldn't have done so safely and proceeded to follow me for miles, alternating between tailgating, cutting me off, and at one point pretending to try and hit my car with his. I didn't have a cell phone at the time so I had to just ride it out until the next rest area at which point he took off (and no, slowing down and getting over didn't help at all, he didn't want to get around me, he wanted to terrify me).

I was driving home from work with my toddler down 23rd St. towards the Lincoln Memorial at the height of rush hour so traffic was nuts as usual. Every one was moving slow and there were some cars that kept jumping back and forth between lanes trying to save a second here or there.

There was a guy alone in a car several cars ahead that kept cutting everyone off, almost to the point of driving recklessly. At one point he was in the lane next to me, when he gassed it and made a 90 degree right turn almost plowing directly into my car. I lightly honked to make sure that he knew I was there and continued to inch forward in my lane.

This set the guy off completely. He forced his way in directly behind me and aggressively tailgated me for the next 10 minutes, alternately slamming on the gas and breaks almost hitting me more than once. The whole time he kept making every rude and obscene gesture imaginable - giving me the finger, simulating oral sex, etc. all while pointing at me and mouthing "you". I eventually managed to switch lanes and of course he forced his way in behind. Eventually he turned and I got rid of him.

He was a middle-aged male, dressed professionally in a mid-grade lux car. Beyond being moderately rattled all I think about was the the potential family he had waiting at home. What an a**!

Yes, but not as bad as your episode. Sorry it happened to you, OP.

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

OP here. Well I wouldn't call it cutting off, but I was trying to get over...I wasn't familiar with the area and the turn was sooner than I thought it would be so I had little time to get in to merge on the highway. It would have been very easy to just let me in, but instead he started to speed up to prevent me from merging into the lane...but I managed to get in before he got too close. I don't know if there was a long line. I don't think so. Honestly, I can see how someone would have been a tiny bit annoyed with the move I made, but if I didn't do it, I would have had to stop to let him and probably others go and create more of a traffic problem trying to get over. Regardless of whether my move was right or not, no traffic violation warrants a reaction like this one!

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

Are you seriously justifying road rage behavior? I hope you're teaching your kids better.

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

Uh, no. Just no. The penalty for cutting someone off, accidentally or negligently, is not an adult temper tantrum. Are you an abused wife?

Happened to me recently on my way to work. There is a stretch of back roads that's 30mph and straight, so people commonly speed (40 and up). The cops know it and I see cops on the lookout at least 3 times a week.

So I'm going 30 and this car behind me starts flashing his high beams. Then he would slow down so there were several car lengths between us and then speed up, slamming on his brakes right before he hit me. Did this twice, at which point we were close to the local police station/a common spot for a cruiser to hang out. Sure enough, cop saw the last part of it and pulled both of us over (me just to get the story).

Almost every day I get road raged. I always think, where are the cops when you want them to see it. Only once did a cop catch a driver after a road rage incident, the cop pulled me over as a witness and said he was charging her with reckless driving. She looked pretty crazed like she was on something. We made eye contact as I drove away, it scared me. There are a lot of crazy stressed out people on our roads.

I just drive the speed limit and I don't mess with anyone acting crazy behind the wheel.

Op ~ we had a similar incident though the fella didn't get out of his car luckily because we arrived at a party and didn't want to run into the house with a crazy man pursuing us.

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

I'm not the OP, and yes, she may be to blame, but what happened to the days of just giving someone the finger? Who knows now how things are going to escalate beyond that? I feel like everyone is a ticking time bomb nowadays.

He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

I *accidentally* cut someone off a few years ago as I was taking my kids to a camp. This woman tailgated me aggressively down a long bumpy country road, followed me into the campsite, waited as I backed into my space, backed in next to me, got out of her car, banged on my window and then yelled at me and "shamed" me in front of my kids. I was terrified. Even better, it appeared she had her teenage daughter in the front seat of her giant white Escalade to witness it all. I was so unnerved. I was actually terrified she was going to be volunteering at the camp. But I briefly said "sorry" rolled up my window and she kept yelling until she climbed into her car and left. It was a private camping area. And we were early. I was really worried she may pull out a gun. People need to chill out.

I was with my two kids in DC the other night. A driver was pissed because I managed to slip in front of him in right lane in order to take an exit. He proceeded to follow me (extreme tailgating), try to cut me off several times, zoom in front of me and stop, and at one point got out of his car (at a red light) and banged on my window with his cell phone. At that point, thank God the light changed and I managed to lose him because of other cars getting behind me. The whole ordeal lasted for at least 15 minutes. It was horrifying and we were on the phone with 911. Unfortunately we didn't get the plate number, but for a while, I will be keeping my home alarm on constantly because this nutcase may very well have access to my address if he knows someone in law enforcement or DMV. Needless to say for a few days, I kept looking in my rear view mirror with a slight bit of paranoia.