Scary road rage incident happened to my wife

[Metalhead47]

This kinda fits in with a couple of recent threads, but it hit close enough to home I figured it warrants its own.

Anyways, in my wife's words...

Situation:

Northbound 405, 3 lanes of traffic. Traveling in the center lane and had to react quickly to avoid an accident ahead. Break & swerve into the HOV lane and accelerated as to not disturb traffic flow. In the process this "cuts off" a person in the HOV lane causing driver to slow down, but not forcing a hard brake. When safe, I returned to the lane I was in to continue on my way. Vehicle from HOV lane then attempts to side swipe me. I again slow down to avoid incident and the driver ahead slows to approx 10-20mph. I moved over another lane to try and remove myself from the situation, again HOV driver swerves towards my vehicle and then stops in the middle of the lane and gestures to me to pull over to the side of the road. I choose to pull over because my tactics to try and get away from the situation failed and wanting to make sure driver was ok.

Confrontation: HOV driver (snookie wanabee) leaves their vehicle and approaches mine. Flailing arms and speaking incoherently. I stayed in my vehicle, with doors locked as always out of habit. I rolled my window down just an inch or two to communicate. I determined there was no issue other than the driver being irate so I roll up my window. HOV driver then tries to open my door, thankfully locked. She then proceeds to pound on my drivers side window and kick my door. I grab my phone and dial 911 to report the road rage.

Thoughts from the IANALs & maybe even the IAALs? My wife was not armed at the time, having just come from work, but sure wishes she had been now. Hindsight being 20/20, drawing was obviously not necessarily, but change any of the variables around and this could have gone very bad very quickly. This is the closest either one of us has come to an actual draw/no draw choice.

 

[ManInBlack]

Perhaps a good dose of mace would be in order to back the nutjob up so as not to endanger her feet as the victim sped away?

 

[dadada]

Any reason your wife didn't just pull back out into traffic when snookie got near your wifes car? Leave her standing by the shoulder of the road. Kind of hard to have a one person confrontation.

 

[gogodawgs]

This is related to open carry how? It is not.

 

[fire suppressor]

If it was me I would be inclined to call 911 while driving to get help heading my way as quickly as possible and not pull over. Pulling over put the other driver in a position of control of the situation. Glad everyone is safe. I had a similar situation a few years ago, I too did stop my car on the side of the road but that was only after my car was forced into the ditch and I got stuck in the dirt for a minute. I was already on the phone to 911 when it happened and the blue lights in the distance scared off the other car

 

[Metalhead47]

This is related to open carry how? It is not.

Really GoGo?

This is a forum where general self defense, especially as it relates to Washington law, is frequently discussed. I'm certainly not the first one to come on here with a "this is what went down, how could it have been handled better, what's the law say, how can I learn from it for the future" type of thread. Seems to fit right in with that other thread about defensive display and when/if to call the police. How bout this, this is why my wife SHOULD have been open carrying! That make you happy?

Any reason your wife didn't just pull back out into traffic when snookie got near your wifes car? Leave her standing by the shoulder of the road. Kind of hard to have a one person confrontation.

She was concerned that if she so much as brushed the woman she'd be accsused of hit & run, etc. As I understand, from where they were on the side of the road she was too close to be able to get past safely.

 

[Metalhead47]

If it was me I would be inclined to call 911 while driving to get help heading my way as quickly as possible and not pull over. Pulling over put the other driver in a position of control of the situation. Glad everyone is safe. I had a similar situation a few years ago, I too did stop my car on the side of the road but that was only after my car was forced into the ditch and I got stuck in the dirt for a minute. I was already on the phone to 911 when it happened and the blue lights in the distance scared off the other car

Valid point. My wife's concern at the time was that this woman's unstable behavior was going to cause an accident sooner or later, and due to the volume of traffic, "escape" wasn't really possible.

Filling in some of the details as we go along, I know. She's still pretty frazzled from the whole thing.

 

[FMCDH]

Three Words - Cell Phone Video

(or any modern digital camera that does video)

Nothing like video evidence when you press charges.

 

[Metalhead47]

(or any modern digital camera that does video)

Nothing like video evidence when you press charges.

Yes. Didn't really enter the thought process at the time but my wife has said that's one thing she'll add to her "what if" scenarios. She's got a Droid2, and doesn't think there's any quick/easy way to get the camera turned on. I have shown her how to get to it on my iPhone if we're ever in a situation like this together.

 

[Sharpender]

Glad your wife is safe. I understand your wife's desire to make sure Snookie was ok, but probably not a good idea in this situation...especially on the freeway. I disagree with you about this being a no draw event, I would have. If someone comes up to my driver side door, my left hand stays on the wheel, gun in my right hand under my left arm pointing at the person's mid-section. I agree with ManInBlack, I would have hit her with the FoxLabs through that opening in the window. +1 on your wife avoiding the accident, most people would have just slammed on the brakes and rear-ended the car in front of them.

 

[jeeper1]

WTF is a Snookie?

 

[OrangeIsTrouble]

WTF is a Snookie?

 

[fire suppressor]

Glad your wife is safe. I understand your wife's desire to make sure Snookie was ok, but probably not a good idea in this situation...especially on the freeway. I disagree with you about this being a no draw event, I would have. If someone comes up to my driver side door, my left hand stays on the wheel, gun in my right hand under my left arm pointing at the person's mid-section. I agree with ManInBlack, I would have hit her with the FoxLabs through that opening in the window. +1 on your wife avoiding the accident, most people would have just slammed on the brakes and rear-ended the car in front of them.

Its hard to say without really being there but I agree with you Sharpender. when I had my similar experience once I was forced off the road I drew my gun in a low ready position. The low ready made my gun extremely available to me if I needed it and because I was still in my car it was still hidden from my aggressor, seconds saves life's.

 

[fire suppressor]

I'm just a country boy so I do not know who or what a snookie is but I am just glad your wife is safe. We can debrief the situation all we want but all that matters is she made it home safely

 

[deanf]

Really GoGo?

This is a forum where general self defense, especially as it relates to Washington law, is frequently discussed.

Which does not comport with the rules of the OCDO Forum. Why would you assume the forum owners would carve out a special exception to the rules for you? LOL!

 

[fire suppressor]

Which does not comport with the rules of the OCDO Forum. Why would you assume the forum owners would carve out a special exception to the rules for you? LOL![/COLOR]

Lets be honest we have been a lot more off topic than this

 

[Bookman]

This actually does relate to OC, as a hypothetical siuation...

...and as a learning experience. Any one of us could find ourselves in the same situation. And the vast majority of us carry on a regular basis. SO, if the wife HAD been carrying, as I'm guessing she often does, would it have been appropriate to draw her weapon?

I agree with whoever it was that said she should never have pulled over. NEVER give control of the situation to someone else if you can help doing so. Call 911. Give them a description and plate number of the car (if possible) as well as your location, as best you can.

As for drawing your weapon... Well, that's up to you. Personally, I don't consider Snookie a threat. A fashion disaster and a bad example, yes. A threat, no.

Other than pulling over in the first place, I think the wife handle the situation pretty well. I'm glad she's okay.

 

[sirpuma]

This is related to open carry how? It is not.

Since gogo can't quite see the relation ...

My wife was not armed at the time, having just come from work, but sure wishes she had been now.

Perhaps had she kept a firearm secured out of sight in the vehicle while at work, but then gets it into an easily accessible and viewable position and the wild snookie saw it, she may have thought twice about pounding and kicking your wife's car.

There gogo, it's now OC related.

Personally, since I wear an earbud, I would have called 911 and not pulled over. The other driver would still have been on the road being crazy and the cops would have their plate and car description. Then when they catch up they could pull them over and deal with their bad behavior.

 

[amlevin]

Just a question on what started the incident. Did the accident just occur in front of your wife causing her to have to swerve suddenly and avoid it? Or was she not paying attention to what was going on ahead and came up on the scene too fast.

Speaking for myself, I tend to notice a bunch of Brake Lights coming on ahead of me, figure out that something's going on, and slow down before I find myself having to swerve.

As for the encounter at the side of the road, absent a weapon of some kind, even if your wife was armed she'd have a hard time making a case for shooting or even pointing her gun at the "snookie wannabe".

 

[BigDave]

According to the op statement of this incident there was nothing they're suggesting deadly force to be used and recommending to pull a weapon and point it at the wannabe snookie need to reevaluate what is and is not a threat that constitutes a threat of deadly force.

Someone as described as swerving toward your car, stopped in the middle of the freeway yelling is no doubt a road rage and why would you want to stop and make sure they are okay? You already know they are not! and want a confrontation.

405 has several exits, call 911 and try and maneuver so snookie is along side and you take an exit at the last second leaving her on the freeway.

I agree with Amlevin, you need to slow down, and be alert when driving these roads as it is common to come across accidents, slow downs and traffic moving in and out.