Okay, so I'm driving back from lunch today on hw.360... and apparently cut off some guy in a red cherokee... He was in my blind spot.. blinker on, change lanes.. he breaks and honks, following me.

Traffic was medium, and there were enough openings for me to maintain the speed limit, but distance myself from this guy...

Well, the light is red, and he pulls up to me-- about a 45yr old guy, and starts mouthing off how I'm this young punk, driving like an asshole, etc...

I'm like dude..sorry didn't see you. He goes on about how I'm this punk, etc.. so I'm like dude, GO AWAY.

Anyway, he then says I should pull over... he bets I'm not man enough to pull over, etc...

Then he's like follow me to the arboritum you punk, I'll end up in jail and you'll end up in brackenridge hospital for 6 months.

I got his license plate or at least part of it... the last 3 letters were 0D5 I believe. Anyway, I'm not interested in persuing him, he was just a jerk.. BUT::

After I he sees me keep back and get on my cell (to report him), he STOPS ... he goes in reverse and gets my plate... Okay, fine... I see him on his cell-- obviously he's doing the same.

Now, my question is: If this guy goes an makes up some BS story about me (since he had to report SOMETHING-- and worst thing I REALLY did was not see him), its probably a lie of somekind to the authorities.

With that in mind, should I call them back (when I spoke with 911 they asked if I wanted them to look for him, I said no, and they basically hung-up) and re-report it?

Is some cop going to show up and harrass me at my home because of this jerk?

-- Aaron

 

Had almost the same thing happen to me. No police showed up, and I kept *looking*.

I doing a legal U turn on the Mopac access road to get to Dave and Busters. Big Ugly Smoking Chevy Van in front of me, doing the same. I zip around him in the right lane as we both completed our U turns. He goes nuts, honking an waving at me. We both pull into the DB/Circuit City parking lot, and the bassard proceeds to follow me.

I ended up going around the parking lot twice and he kept following me. I'm sure he got my plates, but I sure as heck was not gonna park and deal with a mentally unstable and irate Van Driver.

Nobody came to take me away.

 

Nothing personal, but you gotta watch that blind spot stuff. Arguably, you made a mistake because of that. And, compounded it by continuing to play with the jerk. Better to just drive off.

 

Honestly, I think the guy was admiring the car and hanging in my blind spot to look at it... then when I transitioned into his lane, he freaked or something.

I still don't that justifies his threatning someone like that... Road rage is stupid.

Anyway, last thing I was is some cop(s) showing up to ask me my side of a situation, especially if he made something up-- I mean what else could he possibly say??

Him: "This guy changed lanes into me, so I decided to get irate, follow him and then I threatened to kill em!"

I doubt he put his story quite that way.

Anyway, since it'll be "his word" again mine... I suspect they'll just blow it off.

(Unless he admits to threatening me to them, inwhich case he might get introuble for that)

-- Aaron

 

Yes, absolutely no justification. Near misses happen; it's unfortunate. But verbal threats like that. . . there's no excuse. And, technically they are actionable.

A tip on getting rid of blind spots. Lean over until your head is touching your driver's side window. From that point, adjust mirror until you can *just* see the back edge of your car. Now you should have a pretty clear view of the left lane next to you, with a minimized blind spot. Cars on the left should pass out of your mirror and into your peripheral vision at the same time.

Worked for me.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. There's really nothing he can do. His word against yours, and plus the cops have better things to do than worry about little things like that.

 

Be careful out there man, there are a lot of nuts out there.

I wouldnt worry about the cops, they could care less about this incident.

I'm new to this state, but isnt carrying a gun in your car legal here? You never know who is packing heat, so dont piss anyone off.

This is the fourth state I've lived in, in the last 7 years and I really cant say anything nice about the driver's here in general.

Once again be careful, dont endanger yourself or your S.

See you at the next auto-cross or track event. BTW- I still have to check out the infamous "car condom"

 

yup, near miss, and unacceptable behaviour. he could be the one in jail because of what he said to you - verbal threats. but its not worth persuing. regardless, it was your mistake, and we've all done it before, and it happens quite often out there driving a small car.

but my best advice - you have the speed and handling, so lose the guy. if you were going to the arboretum, I would have made sure he would follow me to an area where I could EASILY remove him from view at safe distance. that's just my take, but its not always an option.

 

Here is a slightly more complete description of how to do this:

http://www.motorists.com/issues/safety/adj...st_mirrors.html

I'm amazed I've never gotten into an accident before I found this. I used to just do the turn and look thing.

IMHO, the driver-side side-view mirror doesn't swing out wide enough, because it hits its limit before I can swing it out as far as I want it to go, but I haven't noticed any visibility problems before. I just geta little worried when backing up, so I'm in the habit of always backing into parking spaces whenever possible..