Hi! Lost Internet last night but back now...
JohnTheTexican "What's this "working the gaps" BS? I think what you're describing is cutting in front of someone without leaving him a safe following distance so he has to make room for some rude pushy jerkette. And then slamming on the brakes on a fast-moving congested street because he's following aggressively close? Gimme a break. If he hadn't anticipated her dumb ass move, she could have caused a multi-car pile up and maybe even have gotten someone killed. And all so she can shave a few seconds off her commute.
Sounds to me like your friend needed a lesson in manners. Maybe not the one she got, but a lesson nonetheless.
She may have been subjected to "road rage," but she sure as hell wasn't a victim. She chose to play a dangerous game that put lots of other people on the road at risk."
Although I don't dispute your words, 'cause there is some truth there, bud! But... To be clear, this guy was being such a nuisance apparently, that the few cars around her (between 10-11pm) was just a group that she was attempting to work through, but they were apparently staying with these 2... almost rubbernecking, she said. Behind the group was a long empty stretch. She should've chilled, no doubt. I definitely agree! I think that she will think about it next time... However, whatever vehicular maneuver she had done without causing damage certainly didn't deserve being chased down, with a distinct possibility of bloody violence at the end. She's about 5'5", maybe 110lbs.
Maybe. So, I'd say that, the second she moved for her exit and the man decided to pursue with intent to do bodily harm, she did indeed become "victimized", as she feared for her life at this point. Even if she did cause some of the escalation. She's been chewed about that... By
ME. LOL
Jaxx
PS. I did try to write her account without embellishment (as it doesn't seem to need any!), BUT... I wasn't there. I can only take her word.
No way. When she cut in front of the guy she was a jerkette, and when she slammed on the brakes, she lost any plausible claim to being a "victim." If she'd just let off the gas and driven slow when she thought he was following too close, she might have something to complain about, but when she intentionally, and without good cause, slammed on her brakes in front of him, she was reckless endangering his life and hers and everyone else's on the road around them. At that point, she gave up any claim to the moral high ground, and any bad thing that might have happened to her after that she would have deserved.
No matter how you try to spin it, one guy can't block traffic on a multi-lane road. If she hadn't cut in front of the "road rage" guy closer that he felt was appropriate, there wouldn't have been a story. But people do it all the time. They pass someone and then get in his lane leaving maybe half a car length following distance, which forces the person who's just been cut in front of to either slow down to make rom for the a**hole who just cut in front of him, or follow at the distance that that a**hole just told him is appropriate.
Your Friend is an a**hole, plain and simple. That doesn't mean that the "road rage" guy wasn't a wanker for not just slowing down and letting the a**hole have her way, but neither of them is coming off very well.
In all likelihood, all she would have had to do to diffuse the situation was to slow down. The road rage wanker would have gotten tired of driving slow behind her and would have ended up passing her going 30 mph faster than she was going, and flipping her off as he passed.
And she would have deserved to be flipped off, because she's an a**hole, but it would have all been over. No real harm done, and no blowing through red lights at 60mph, not threats, and no putting other peoples' lives needlessly at risk.
Your friend need to have someone smack her upside the head. If I were a cop, I would have given her a day or so in jail to consider whether whatever gratification she gets out of playing these games is really worth it. Same goes for the "road rage" wanker, except that from what I read, she was ore responsible for instigating and escalating the situation than the wanker was.
(As it happens, I saw almost this exact situation played out wile I was riding with my ex-wife. Suffice it to say, I'm not buying the bullshit about her being a victim. Chix like to take advantage of our natural protectiveness and pretend that they're poor innocent victims when in reality they've acted badly and intentionally provoked a bad situation, which is exactly what you've described here. As the situation has been described here, of the "road rage" wanker and your friend, your friend is the one whose most in the wrong.)
IMO. YMMV, of course.
when he slammed on the brakes and got out. I was blocked by traffic and could go nowhere. By the time he got to my car I'd undid the belt and when he leaned in to grab me he got a M9 tapped on his forehead inside my car. He smelled like a brewery but backed off. If he would have come through the window again I would have shot him no doubt as I had nowhere to go to get out of the situation.
