A deathly case of road rage!

OMG. What the heck!?

I'm torn on the topic of road rage. It's a very real psychotic breakdown, and it does cause very real trauma to the victims. But does the victim have the right to run them over like in this story? I have no idea. If the guy had a gun and shot the guy instead of running him over, it would be considered self defense.

I have been in a car where the driver had a case of road rage. A few years ago I was in a taxi coming home from the doctors and a car cut off the taxi driver, or so the taxi driver claimed. There were more than 4 car lengths between the taxi and the car so I hardly consider that being cut off.

The taxi driver went crazy on the horn, opened his window (dead of winter) and stuck his arm and head out of the car window and began to yell at the driver in front. The driver in front made it through the light before it turned red, but the taxi driver didn't stop. He gunned it right through a blatant red light and continued his rage.

The driver of the other car had pulled into a parking lot just beyond the red light and parked his car. The taxi driver stopped in the middle of the busy road and blocked traffic and got part way out of the car and continued his verbal assault on the other driver.

Both of them were yelling and the driver of the other car was walking towards us. Cars behind us were honking because the taxi driver was blocking the road.

I was scared for my life. I had visions that this guy was going to come to the car, beat up the driver and possibly me. I was yelling at the driver to stop it and to get back in the car and have road rage on his own time when he is in the car alone!

If it wasn't for a broken foot that I had at the time that prevented me from walking, I would have gotten out of the car and found another way home.

I complained to the taxi board about it. I never heard what if anything happened.

There was a case of road rage here. The person who was responsible was an off duty police officer.

No, I meant it the way it came out.

Yeah, I think the driver of the Altima panicked, but WTH was the other driver doing???? Huh???? Sounds like he had a screw loose.

If I had another driver pursue me like that and menace me, I don't know what I would do, call the cops?? His lawyer could definitely argue self-defense, I think. What was he going to do, wait for this enraged and out-of-control man to yank him out of his car and beat him up?

What would any of you done? Like I said, I don't KNOW what I would have done. No bystanders intervened I take it...

Or worse. So many people in the US carry guns, that while the guy didn't have one in his hand at the time of his raging, the driver of the car that ran him over didn't know that. The road rager was a real threat so far as the driver was concerned.

I probably would have done the same thing out of panic and fear for my life. The road rager went too far. It's one thing to ride someone's bumper and honk the horn, or get in front and drive agonizingly slow, or shake your fist and have a verbal exchange, but to make a barrier and continuously block the guys exit, was extreme to the point of being threatening.

In New York?! You would be lucky if someone called 911 from the safety of their home, if they saw someone being mugged outside their apartment building!

It really scares me seeing people with road rage going at each other because they apparently aren't using their heads and do stupid things not to mention endangering other innocent people on the road but THIS story?! OMG! Both of them sound crazy! Why not roll up the window and call the police?

Personally I don't think the guy should be considered a murderer now.

What would you do if someone followed you, was threatening you, you tried to get away and the driver chased you down and looked like he was going to grab you out of your car? I mean it's really too bad, the guy outside of his car shouldn't have been harrassing someone in a vehicle. It's a 1500lb metal machine, you've freaked out the driver, he shouldn't have been harrassing the man so much.

The guy probably shouldn't have hit him as hard as he did... but I can't say I wouldn't do something similar if I thought someone was trying to kill me and wouldn't leave me alone. We all have a threshold for what we can handle as far as fear, maybe this guy was SUPER terrified for whatever reason. What if he had gotten out of his car, what if the guy in the porsche strangled him or beat him up? I mean no one knows how far that guy was going to take it.

I agree.

One time, someone followed me because he was upset that I came off the offramp too slow. (At least that's what I think, because he was tailgating me.) This crazy went out of his way to cut me off, then he ran a red light and made a U-turn in the middle of the block to go in the opposite direction. I'm a very rational person, so I thought if he continued to harrass me, I'd drive toward the campus police station and call them as I approached. Had I not been near a police station and the guy assaulted me, I'd have tried to drive away too. I would look out for myself before I looked out for my attacker.

Your friend was certainly brave

I moved this to IMO since it's a little heavy for the Lounge, and since there is some debate going on here.

Personally, I think the Altima driver (the one who ran over the rager) should be charged of negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. And it could still be argued as self-defense. I'm sure the driver was scared for his life and most any reasonable person would be.

First, we don't know how big the guy was that got run over. I mean, it's a different level of fear if the guy is built like Bill Gates or if he's built like Sylvester Stallone or Arnold. If it's a big guy and he's pounding on your car, there's a reasonable level of fear that he could break the windows, drag you from the car and beat you to death. And you don't know if he has a knife or gun or chain or some other weapon on him from inside your car.

And remember, the driver was 22 years old; the rager was 36. Yes, they are both legally adults, but seriously there is a different level of maturity that is supposed to be there. Obviously it wasn't for the rager.

with someone getting out of their car up to yours it would of sent the driver into a state of panic - fight or flight springs straight to mind here stay and be killed or run away its a perfectly normal reaction, aand to be honest i couldnt coment on what i would of done whether i would of accelerated off quickly or slowly as i wasnt in that position and in defense to the guy that ran him over how did he not know that the guy didnt have a gun, which if he rolled his window up to cal the police would of shot straight through the glass and possibly killed him, bringing you striaght back to fight or flight natural reaction of a human being is to run, goes straight back to cave men days

it happened to one of my dads friends he was in a transit van and a bmw cut him off at some traffic lights so he wound his window down and had a go at the guy, who instanly turned round and grabbed a shot gun and pointed it at his face scary.

Does it count as physical assault if the man was punching and kicking the car?

I don't think it was "in cold blood".

I think I would be paralyzed with fear if that happened to me. I have been on the receiving end of my fair share of road ragers. One particular incident that still mades me shudder. I was working an early morning shift at one of the local TV stations. I would leave for work around 2:30 am.. mind you.. there is NO ONE on the road at that time of night. I pulled out (left turn) onto the main road when suddenly, there are headlights in my rear view mirror. It was some kind of sportscar... he came out of NOWHERE... must have been driving very fast as I did not see him at all..

This is a two lane road - no traffic -- pulled off a little bit onto the shoulder- he followed me... I sped up.. so did he.. I slowed down.. so did he... when I got to the divided highway.. I went into the right lane.. so did he... left lane.. so did he.. .on my bumper the entire time. He could have passed me easily countless times.. but chose to "punish" or torture me instead. Can you say psycho??????!!!!!! I finally lost him on the freeway... Not sure I had a cell phone at the time... and it wasn't until after I had calmed down that I thought of driving to a police station. One of my first thoughts was .. I can't be late to work ... I briefly thought of pulling into a 7-11 that was not too far from my route... but my rational mind was thinking.. this guy is gonna give up any minute... he didn't.

I can tell you that by the time I got to work, I was shaking. From that point forward, I can also tell you that I ran every red light on my way to work at that time of morning for months afterward... just so I wouldn't be "caught at the light." And if a cop pulled me over... I would tell him why... and if I got a ticket, so be it.

Definition of panic: a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or irrational behavior, ....

This was not a cold-blooded killing. The extenuating circumstances that the Altima driver tried to avoid the confrontation and was still pursued, then trapped, created a situation where few individuals would be rational. I suspect the driver ended up on a primal level where all he could think of was to get away.

Still as a society, we must ask all individuals to rise above that primal and give rational thought. So there will be charges of negligent homicide because he could have avoided the death.

I also wonder if we would view this situation differently if the Altima driver was a woman. I suspect we feel the man should have defended himself differently.

Well, the question that prosecutors and police should be asking is, "At what point was the driver justified in using his car as a weapon to defend himself?"

What point would you choose?

1. When the driver yelled or gestured from his car?

2. When the driver got out of his car and approached him?

3. When the driver started beating on his car?

4. When the driver blocked him in after he had safely left the first confrontation?

5. When the driver again approached his car?

6. When the driver again beat on his car?

7. When he realized he was blocked in and the other driver would not let him leave?

All those points were reached. Now let's get hypothetical.

8. When the driver used a stone or some other hard object to start beating on his car? (By the way, at least by this point, if not before, Texas law would justify the use of deadly force with a weapon, under our "castle law.")

9. When the driver broke his window?

10. When the driver pulled a gun?

11. When the driver fired the first shot?

Now, the right thing to do would have been to just roll forward slowly until the other driver either had to get out of your way, or commit suicide by staying in your way.

By the way, I have no sympathy for the driver who was killed terrorizing another driver. I don't care that he was about to close on a new house. He was creating an entirely unacceptable situation for another driver, and at the very least deserved to lose the privelege to ever drive again.

I don't think we believe that he should go unpunished. But he should not be treated the same as someone who woke up one morning, planned, and executed a cold-blooded murder. Your comments can be perceived to have no compassion for a person who was in a highly charged, emotional situation. True, he had choices, but I doubt he hit the accelerator to kill this person. He's main motivation was to get away from this threat (real or perceived).

The "victim" brought this on himself.

You don't argue with a person in a 1500lb vehicle. No matter how angry or right you are.

This is why they always say road rage isn't the answer because the person you're yelling at could have a gun under the seat.

This is just like a kid that constantly gets made fun of and goes around shooting the people who harrassed him. You shouldn't push a person to the point that they do something irrational. The "victim" bullied the person in the car to the point he was terrified and made a bad decision. What did the "victim" hope to gain from harrassing the crap out of a person? Why didn't he honk his horn and go on about his day, rather than hunt the person down to harrass them some more? He may be the "victim" because he died, but he made the poor decision to bully someone and push them past their breaking point.

On top of going through feeling like your life might be at stake, this guy now has to live with the fact he killed someone. This guy isn't getting off free at all even if they didn't put him in prison for homicide, he has to deal with the mental anguish.

Long Island man charged in fatal road rage

My sympathies lie with the Altima driver, who apparently was harassed and intimidated, not with the so-called "victim", who had only himself to blame. It sounds as if the latter was the first to use his car as a "weapon".