Tuesday 16 March 2010

Road Rage Record

I needed to write this down, and thought the blog was as good a place as any. I don't expect comments or anything, though they're of course always welcome. At the least, you'll be able to witness the fact that I wrote the record within 24 hours of the incident (this is mostly a transcription of my notes made during today).

Monday 15 March 5.30 - 6.00 p.m.

  • I'm on my way through Reading to pick up Kate for an evening with Linda and Alan in Datchet.
  • I'm tailgated (2 metres behind me) along Tilehurst Road and down Castle Hill by a white BMW reg T 758 JUR. (It's driven, I later find, by a scouser called P. Pickering. Mobile number 07532 169533)
  • At the roundabout he jumps a red light and takes the right hand lane (IDR) on the slip road. I catch up in the LH lane for Mill Lane.
  • He takes the IDR, then cuts in to the next slip road, trying to get in front of everyone but ending up behind me, ducking and weaving through the traffic so that he ends up in the middle lane, me in the right lane, both following signs and road markings to join Mill Lane (you really need a map to follow this, it's a very complicated junction, but just bear with me - at this point, we're both in the correct lane for where we want to go, even though he's broken at least three laws to get there).
  • Mill Lane starts as two lanes which merge into one. The signs say 'merge in turn'. He's a car's length behind me, to my left, so I signal left and prepare to merge ahead of him. He decides at this point to accelerate, still desperate to be in front - and sideswipes my car with his front bumper.
  • We pull up in the hatched area where the lanes merge.

PART 2

  • We get out and inspect the damage. It was a minor impact - a graze. No real damage to my car, a bit of loose bumper trim on his.
  • Notwithstanding, he immediately opens up a tirade of abuse and threat which scares me (I'm a physical coward at the best of times, and have still, after 65+ years, not evolved a working set of responses to this kind of stuff).
  • My recollections of just a few of his choice phrases - it'll give you a flavour of his thought processes as well as his mindset and his communication skills:
  • "You fucking cut me up, you wanker, you was in the wrong lane (I wasn't), you cut me up"
  • "I've got a witness" (I laughed at this point, which didn't help)
  • "I'm going to follow you home"
  • "I'd break your nose if you wasn't so old"
  • (later, after I'd made an ill-advised comment 'there's something wrong with you, mate') "I'm going to break your nose anyway" (He didn't)
  • (later still) "I'd break your fucking nose if there wasn't all these cameras around" (he seems to have this obsession with my nose)
  • Much more of the same - that'll do as a sample.
  • He threatens several times to call the police. I say OK, call them (although I really don't want this as I know Kate's getting anxious and I don't have her number on my mobile), but of course he doesn't - pretends to a couple of times, but I call his bluff.
  • My sole response to all of this is "we need to exchange names and addresses". I write mine down.
  • He insists that we need to exchange insurance details as well (we don't), and foolishly I eventually give him my policy number.
  • By now, I've had enough. I can see that he's written down his name and insurance policy on a card, but I still don't have his address. I press him for this, and eventually he says "it's on the back". We exchange cards/notes and drive off.
  • Of course, his address isn't on the back of the card, just a mobile number. So he's actually committed a crime called 'leaving the scene of an accident without ...' whatever.
  • Just before we leave, his parting shot, on seeing my address, is "My mate John lives there - he'll be knocking at your door".
  • I'm in some fear that he's going to to follow me to Kate's, but thankfully he turns right into Basingstoke Road. Hopefully I'll never see the little shit again.
So far, neither Pete or John have called round. I have my defences (door chain, phone, digital camera, machete) at the ready.

1 comment:

  1. Episodes like this set me trembling - with rage. How dare someone behave like that (Audi driver in my last post being example). Pity you didn't get a witness but then again, the insurance companies are as much to blame as they treat this sort of thing on a 'knock for knock' basis. The police - pppffff - forget them, they aren't interested, with the attitude that 'no-one was hurt' so who cares!!
    I wrote a letter to our local rag once after I had seen a blatant disregard to the rules and was flooded with responses from people who had similar occurrences. What to do? Just try and keep out of the way of these morons - they always resort to violence if challenged. So sorry this has happened to you.

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