I know road rage discussions are generally frowned upon in ST&T but this was a real-life incident that happened to me about 5 years ago. I was hoping some might help me with some genuine questions I have as to how I could have handled the situation better.
Was driving, don't remember the specifics, but somehow I enraged another driver who started following me and driving aggressively behind me, honking, flashing lights, motioning for me to pull over (even though there had been no accident).
I proceed to drive towards my house, taking a route that I know will be busy and at least have lots of witnesses if anything happens. I reach a stop light and I'm boxed in with a curb on one side and traffic on two others and him directly behind me.
He jumps out at the light armed with what I believe was a very large socket wrench and starts yelling for me to get out of the car and fight him. I remain in my car, quiet, waiting for the light to change to get the heck out of there. During this time he takes two swings at my car, one at the deck of the trunk and one at the roof, both of which I later found out left sizable dents.
I drove off when the light changed, incident over.
I still think back to that time and wonder 1) if I was in more danger than I realized and 2) if I *had* been carrying, would it have been appropriate to draw? Should I have simply done what I did, remaining in the vehicle and letting it take the licks? (I have to say it sucks to get your vehicle beat up, but obviously better than your face...)
Other options, such as heading to a police station were not viable as this light that I was stopped at was just short of a police station I was trying to get near.
Just curious for future use, what strategy would you employ in this situation?
Was driving, don't remember the specifics, but somehow I enraged another driver who started following me and driving aggressively behind me, honking, flashing lights, motioning for me to pull over (even though there had been no accident).
I proceed to drive towards my house, taking a route that I know will be busy and at least have lots of witnesses if anything happens. I reach a stop light and I'm boxed in with a curb on one side and traffic on two others and him directly behind me.
He jumps out at the light armed with what I believe was a very large socket wrench and starts yelling for me to get out of the car and fight him. I remain in my car, quiet, waiting for the light to change to get the heck out of there. During this time he takes two swings at my car, one at the deck of the trunk and one at the roof, both of which I later found out left sizable dents.
I drove off when the light changed, incident over.
I still think back to that time and wonder 1) if I was in more danger than I realized and 2) if I *had* been carrying, would it have been appropriate to draw? Should I have simply done what I did, remaining in the vehicle and letting it take the licks? (I have to say it sucks to get your vehicle beat up, but obviously better than your face...)
Other options, such as heading to a police station were not viable as this light that I was stopped at was just short of a police station I was trying to get near.
Just curious for future use, what strategy would you employ in this situation?