Posted: 12/20/2008 3:21:19 PM EDT
| Ok driving around DFW is crazy as any Texan could testify. I had a taxi cab driver tail gating and tecnically driving like a maniac. I reduced speed to let him get to wherever he was going. He weaved through traffic and ended up in the fast lane. I kept course in the middle and he decided the fast lane was not fast enough. He cut me off again and went to the slow lane. Traffic eventually bottle necked and this guy is still trying to weave through traffic. My truck prevented him from coming back over, but when traffic cleared this knucklehead ended up beside me in the fast lane and threatened to ram my truck repeatedly. Literally swerving towards me but not making contact which I was itching for. With my bushmaster 97s and Sig sp 2022 on hand I think I would have had the upper hand if this situation escalated. Instead blowing his ass a new hole I called the number on his cab and reported his cab number to the dispatch. 911 would never have been able to locate him as there are too many damn towns in between dallas and fort worth. He saw me report him and went ballistic. Making more drastic swerves to my vehicle but not hitting. I had enough and pulled over to the shoulder of the road to let him move on or finish this right then and there. I'm positive he has no clue how lucky he was to keep driving. In my head I keep wondering what I would have done had he stopped. Hold him at gunpoint and call the police or shoot him if he stopped and tried to attack me. What is your guys input on this? I did have a witness with me and he was alone. Input?? |
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Ok driving around DFW is crazy as any Texan could testify. I had a taxi cab driver tail gating and tecnically driving like a maniac. I reduced speed to let him get to wherever he was going. He weaved through traffic and ended up in the fast lane. I kept course in the middle and he decided the fast lane was not fast enough. He cut me off again and went to the slow lane. Traffic eventually bottle necked and this guy is still trying to weave through traffic. My truck prevented him from coming back over, but when traffic cleared this knucklehead ended up beside me in the fast lane and threatened to ram my truck repeatedly. Literally swerving towards me but not making contact which I was itching for. With my bushmaster 97s and Sig sp 2022 on hand I think I would have had the upper hand if this situation escalated. Instead blowing his ass a new hole I called the number on his cab and reported his cab number to the dispatch. 911 would never have been able to locate him as there are too many damn towns in between dallas and fort worth. He saw me report him and went ballistic. Making more drastic swerves to my vehicle but not hitting. I had enough and pulled over to the shoulder of the road to let him move on or finish this right then and there. I'm positive he has no clue how lucky he was to keep driving. In my head I keep wondering what I would have done had he stopped. Hold him at gunpoint and call the police or shoot him if he stopped and tried to attack me. What is your guys input on this? I did have a witness with me and he was alone. Input?? I don't understand. Are you asking us to sympathize with your utterly batshit crazy fantasies about shooting a taxi cab driver for driving poorly?!?! |
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You do not stop, you do not make eye contact with someone like that. Calling the cab company was a good thing to do, but stopping was a way to escalate the situation.
If you are worried he is going to do something, you can test to see if he's going to try to follow you. If he does, I would then call the police. Never stop. Never gesture. Never escalate. |
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Ok driving around DFW is crazy as any Texan could testify. I had a taxi cab driver tail gating and tecnically driving like a maniac. I reduced speed to let him get to wherever he was going. He weaved through traffic and ended up in the fast lane. I kept course in the middle and he decided the fast lane was not fast enough. He cut me off again and went to the slow lane. Traffic eventually bottle necked and this guy is still trying to weave through traffic. My truck prevented him from coming back over, but when traffic cleared this knucklehead ended up beside me in the fast lane and threatened to ram my truck repeatedly. Literally swerving towards me but not making contact which I was itching for. With my bushmaster 97s and Sig sp 2022 on hand I think I would have had the upper hand if this situation escalated. Instead blowing his ass a new hole I called the number on his cab and reported his cab number to the dispatch. 911 would never have been able to locate him as there are too many damn towns in between dallas and fort worth. He saw me report him and went ballistic. Making more drastic swerves to my vehicle but not hitting. I had enough and pulled over to the shoulder of the road to let him move on or finish this right then and there. I'm positive he has no clue how lucky he was to keep driving. In my head I keep wondering what I would have done had he stopped. Hold him at gunpoint and call the police or shoot him if he stopped and tried to attack me. What is your guys input on this? I did have a witness with me and he was alone. Input?? I don't understand. Are you asking us to sympathize with your utterly batshit crazy fantasies about shooting a taxi cab driver for driving poorly?!?! |
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dont stop; dont go home
call the cab company, get the cab's info (tag, etc), call the cops, et al dont fu*k around; "descallation" is probably the best option in this case pulling over and letting the douche cabbie move along is probably the best option; IF he follows, simply flee...THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LEAVING you hold your ground, you are looking for a fight; when you get into fights, YOU have to realize that its not as simply as how the fantasy plays out in your mind nor may be as lawful (morally or legally) as you may think it is 
deadly force (as in the use of a firearm) is a serious matter and should not be played out willy nilly...its a final resort IF your life is truly in danger; not b/c you WANT to shoot someone b/c they are acting stupid
on the other hand, have you considered that YOU were the lucky one? maybe he was some derranged killer wanting to shoot someone; violence goes both ways...when the SHTF, both parties end up loosing...some more than others ETA: to state what I would do if the cabbie had pulled over, i'd simply leave and call the cops; IF, for some reason, i stayed on that shoulder, i'd simply stay in my vehicle and make no threatening motions UNLESS cabbie got too close in or made a deadly force move (like ramming his car into mine intentionally, pulling a weapon, etc) defend your life however you got to; but dont be too eager to kill someone for something as stupid as stupidity on the road 
i would NOT hold the cabbie at gunpoint; either he is dead (b/c he made a commitment to harm me) or the PD is coming and/or i'm gone; the other option: cabbie sees a presented firearm, deduces that he should cool off and leave, in which case you still report the incident to the PD, and having a witness is a good thing |
| I am by no means seeking sympathy. I have never been so blatantly threatened for no reason. It has been bothering me so that I wanted input from other CHL holders. I just picked up a friend from the airport. I am not confrontational or I would have tried to ram him back and let the insurance deal with it. My silverado would have no problem with a crown vic, I think thats what he was driving. The roads were so full I could not put any distance between him and I. There was not an immediate exit that I could have taken. I even slowed down. I have called 911 on this stretch of road before to report drunk driving and received the well by the time we get there response it will be a different city's juridstiction. When he tried to ram me, and by ram I mean half his car in my lane I figured he was trying to assault me with a weapon. This intensified after he saw me on the phone reporting his information to his company dispatch. I'm glad that he kept on his way. And I do consider myself lucky because I do not want to deal with the aftermath of such a thing. |
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I am by no means seeking sympathy. I have never been so blatantly threatened for no reason. It has been bothering me so that I wanted input from other CHL holders. I just picked up a friend from the airport. I am not confrontational or I would have tried to ram him back and let the insurance deal with it. My silverado would have no problem with a crown vic, I think thats what he was driving. The roads were so full I could not put any distance between him and I. There was not an immediate exit that I could have taken. I even slowed down. I have called 911 on this stretch of road before to report drunk driving and received the well by the time we get there response it will be a different city's juridstiction. When he tried to ram me, and by ram I mean half his car in my lane I figured he was trying to assault me with a weapon. This intensified after he saw me on the phone reporting his information to his company dispatch. I'm glad that he kept on his way. And I do consider myself lucky because I do not want to deal with the aftermath of such a thing. I guess I didn't really understand your initial post, it was kinda confusing. I think you did the right thing. Jay |
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Don't stop. Don't get into an argument. Just keep on moving. Call his employer, file a complaint and past that just drop it and leave it alone.
Bottom line is that if he's a dumbshit he will most likely be one for life. Regardless of what you say to him or do. If you engage a person, display a weapon, etc. while involved in Road Rage incident you will almost always come out on the losing end of the law. There are almost no situations where Road Rage is involved that you could make the case that you were justified in using a weapon. If you said or did anything to help escalate the situation you are screwed. In Road Rage cases it is extremely rare that only one person did all of the escalating. I've driven in the DFW Area many times and traffic is hideous and the drivers suck. Just as they do here in Florida. You just have to relax, keep a cool head, and don't get sucked into a hostile situation, with some retarded hotheaded jackass, that ends up ruining your life. It's not worth it. Just take a deep breath and move on. In five minutes the dipshit is usually out of your life forever and you will have forgotten about it. |
| Some drivers are just dumb assholes, we have plenty of them in Phoenix. If you feel the need to shoot them, perhaps you should rethink carrying a gun. I carry OC for irate drivers should they decide to follow me. I see quite a few people with your mentality in the local news for shooting road ragers and going to jail. Is it worth it? |
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I was in a situation today where I was following a guy who was crossing the double yellow and running stop signs. I followed him and when I had decided I had seen enough, I phoned the police to let them know how this guy was driving and where he was. He realized I had been following him and was on the phone and slowed way down on a two lane road, I slowed down behind him, then decided to pass him in lieu of letting him block me in somewhere. People are unpredictable, especially in cars. He followed me through the next turn I took, but fortunately kept going when I took another turn.
This got me thinking about what I would have done if 1) he got out of his car if we were both stopped and 2) if he had continued to follow me. In situation 1, I personally an in a bind because I don't have my carry permit yet, and my driver door doesn't lock. I would have had to get out of there fast even if that meant going off the road. If my door locked and I had a carry permit, I'd probably just lock my door and watch him get pissed off from inside if I couldn't easily drive away. In situation 2, the answer is pretty clear to me. Keep driving until the police show up. This was a good learning experience for me since I've now though about what to do in these situations in advance, rather than figuring out what to do on the spot. I think the best thing to remember when dealing with other drivers is that it's okay to run away/give up. These people don't know who you are and you will never see them again. There's no point in trying to maintain your pride and/or 'beat' them. Just call the police to report dangerous drivers and let law enforcement take care of it. |
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Carrying a gun comes with a lot of responsibility. One of the biggest, toughest and least glamorous is swallowing your pride. This. I had a situation similar to yours several years ago, except no other traffic around. Long stretch of highway, middle of the afternoon, and I'm doing 10 over the limit in the fast lane. I look in my rear view for probably the first time in several minutes and there's a guy tailgating me. He starts flashing his lights and jerking back and forth, I moved over to the middle lane and slowed down, he followed me. Eventually he pulled over to his right and started gesturing at me to pull over to the left and he made a fist, I took it to mean he wanted to beat on me. By then I figured he must have been behind me for a while to be this mad, but you never know what other people are thinking. Here we are, open stretch of highway, I had been going 75 or 80 mph, it apparently wasn't fast enough for him, but he wanted to spend more time showing me just how upset he was by picking a fight. I was fairly young, but I managed to not lose my temper at the guy. I had a pistol in the glove box, and I really didn't want it to come to that. But at the time my plan was that if he got me off the road that I would go for the gun and warn him off verbally. To be completely honest the idea scared me a little. So instead of keeping pace with him and trying to be a tough guy I slowed down to 65 and waited for the him to get bored and go away. I wish I could say I had a solid plan or nerves of steel, but more than anything else it left a lasting impression on me of how nervous I was, even knowing I had a gun. My incident is one of the reasons I carry both a gun and a cell phone, and why I've sought and continue to seek training, so I can be as prepared as I can get for stuff like this, and hopefully everyone involved will go home that night. I always tell people who ask why I carry that I'm not out looking for trouble, I carry in case trouble finds me. It sounds to me like you did the right thing given the circumstances, boxed in with traffic and all. I wouldn't call it fantasy in this situation to consider that you're carrying and that you may have to fall back on that option. |
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nothing you said so far sounds like justification for deadly force.
+1 do a google search on "texas penal code" and read up on it well. To go even further, there's a bigggg difference in using a THREAT of deadly force and an actual USE of deadly force, along with different justifications for both. I'm not sure if you're a CHL holder or not, but I think taking a CHL class would provide you with a bounty of useful info. I know my CHL class helped me (still waiting for mine though, sent in my package back in October, and I probably won't get anything back until April) I'm glad to hear nothing escalated to the point of yall throwing down or you pulling a gun out (whether justified by the law or not). |