Protection against road rage.

[Evgeni]

Got home tonight and the wife tells me she was road raged by some brave soul. She drives a 4 cyl camry, pov pack, so hardly a menacing presence on the road.
4pm Syd peak hour, anyway she tries to change into the left lane and this p*ick accelerates so she couldn't get in. Fair enough, she is happy to slot in afterwards, but the traffic stopped. When it gets going again, he is slow of the mark, so she ducks into the lane in order to turn left into the next street.
He now goes off his nut and crosses to the right lane and pulls in front of her, slams on the brake and gets out banging on the windows and yelling. My three kids were in the back, petrified whilst he was making a few threats to trash the car.

I'm thinking a dash cam would be handy - wouldn't stop something like this, but at least we could follow it up if anything did happen.
Thankfully it was peak hour and there were a lot of others beeping this guy to get moving.

Happy to hear of any other things people have done to avoid, or deal with road rage losers.

[BHDOGS]

devils advocate but are you sure thats the full story my missus has a habit of leaving out the key bits about tales like that when relayed to me.

[SantoAU]

My brother (ex 5/7 RAR with two tours in East Timor with AUSBATT and the UN) had an experience a year or so ago, where some peanut decided to get out of his car and threaten both him and his two young daughters after a traffic "misunderstanding".

His response was to get out, deploy the telescopic metal baton he has in his car for just such an occasion and quietly ask the other gentleman if he wished to continue making something of it.

Not entirely legal, but surprisingly effective.

[joolz]

A dash cam would show the full story...

[zilo]

was she keeping left?

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Clearly that story she tried to sell you makes no sense at all.

No person just goes nuts because someone 'just' changes lanes, or this person would be going nuts all day long every day in Sydney traffic, as people are constantly changing lanes.

There is clearly a whole lot more to this story that she has decided to omit so as not to incriminate herself.

[wookie836]

love this site, you ask a question and the majority proceed to pick a the situation given... helpful.

its prob best your missus stayed in the car, in road rage you should do your best to not pull over and stay within your vehicle.

if you find yourself out of the car dealing with some irrational person a small dry powder extinguisher can come in handy, may people have them in their cars; you can defensively spray it keeping them away and its a good visual deterrent when swung around infront of you.

[pottery beige]

It doesn't take much to set clowns off now days

I just point and laugh at them

Sends the crackies nuts

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by XB GS 351 Coupe

No person just goes nuts because someone 'just' changes lanes, or this person would be going nuts all day long every day in Sydney traffic, as people are constantly changing lanes.

In Sydney it's perfectly normal nowadays. Now that I live in the country it hits me in the face every time I go back there how stressed and aggressive Sydney drivers are. The road rage is truly scary.

Unfortunately we get them out here in holiday time. Suddenly the normally relaxed traffic is full of people darting in and out of lanes and filling your rear-vision mirror. (Not to mention suddenly a whole heap of drivers hogging the right lane.) Sydney people seriously need to chill out!

Around January our neighbour came back from shopping and said that the shopping centre was full of all these rude, pushy people. I had to remind her that it was school holidays and the Sydney folk were down and "de-stressing"

[Cheese3]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

It doesn't take much to set clowns off now days

I just point and laugh at them

Sends the crackies nuts

Or blowing them a kiss is another action that makes them go troppo

[LeadFoot81]

IMO it's best to let people get on their way and mind your own business. It can be tempting to 'give it back' (for example slow down, block out, or point and laugh) but you've got no idea what state of mind people really are in, how they got there, and what they're capable of.

Regardless of how it happened, I'm glad the OP's family is safe.

In your wife's situation, I would've done everything possible to merge behind the guy. If he's capable of blocking the left lane, he'd follow that up with sitting up her rear and that could lead to a rear ender. It's just not worth the stress.

[PepeLePew]

Unless there is a collision there is no valid reason to confront another driver peacefully or otherwise. Driver may just have been having a bad day or had a incident 100m behind with someone else or had a argument with his estranged drug addled ex before he left home 5 minutes before and just snapped. Reasons are irrelevant, driving errors in heavy traffic and/or poor driving is a fact of everyday life. Dash cams are remarkably cheap and about the best you could do for her and your kids.

[Tokyo Geoff]

Originally Posted by XB GS 351 Coupe

Clearly that story she tried to sell you makes no sense at all.

No person just goes nuts because someone 'just' changes lanes, or this person would be going nuts all day long every day in Sydney traffic, as people are constantly changing lanes.

There is clearly a whole lot more to this story that she has decided to omit so as not to incriminate herself.

Sorry but I disagree. There are lots of people out there with nanosecond fuses. Sure it may have been sanitised or in the trauma of the event parts forgotten but once someone gets out of a car to attack someone else then they've crossed the line of frustration to violence.

As for carrying a baton in the car that's a rather dangerous move too IMO. Cops wouldn't appreciate that much as part of the self defence plea.
Geoff

[Dash_XR]

Tazer, pepper spray or big shiny Bowie knife, sounds bad but at the end of the day you get the wrong person or someone off their head and that might be the only deterant. Especially with kids in the car.

I do like the smile and wave approach though.

[flooded one]

Without knowing the full details of what happened I can't say too much... A dash cam would be my best advice, there are a few crazys on the roads.. Might off been annoyed his clapped out car was struggling to keep up with the Camry driving normally??? Who knows

[flooded one]

Originally Posted by Dash_XR

Tazer, pepper spray or big shiny Bowie knife, sounds bad but at the end of the day you get the wrong person or someone off their head and that might be the only deterant. Especially with kids in the car.

I do like the smile and wave approach though.

I've thought about doing that (weapon in car) but how do you explain to police about having a weapon in your car??? I normally just laugh at the idiots. I did go to confront one idiot that claimed I nearly hit his car. Was no where near it when I took off at a servo, pulled over and got out of car, he took off real quick. Most people will back down but there is that one percent that dont

[Maka]

Install a dash cam Evgeni pronto! Its not worth the stress if something happens & you've got nothing to back you up in these situations or a crash.

cheers, Maka

[Dash_XR]

Originally Posted by wildrider

I've thought about doing that (weapon in car) but how do you explain to police about having a weapon in your car??? I normally just laugh at the idiots. I did go to confront one idiot that claimed I nearly hit his car. Was no where near it when I took off at a servo, pulled over and got out of car, he took off real quick. Most people will back down but there is that one percent that dont

That's stuff is not illegal as long as its not concealed, if ever asked just tell them it's in the glove box. Not sure about tasers though, might need a permit for that.

It's just a last resort visual deterrent that says " if you try and enter this car you are going to get cut or zapped".

[Syndrome]

Recommendations for dealing with these types of people: Get front and rear cameras. Lock all the doors and close all the windows. Keep on the main roads. Drive to the nearest police station.

[Olbucko]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

Recommendations for dealing with these types of people: Get front and rear cameras. Lock all the doors and close all the windows. Keep on the main roads. Drive to the nearest police station.

Easier said than done, look what happened to this bloke!


http://youtu.be/cgo1RNRVX4g

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by Olbucko

Easier said than done, look what happened to this bloke!


http://youtu.be/cgo1RNRVX4g

But it was still done. The driver wasn't harmed and he had video evidence to present to the police of the road rage incident.

[flooded one]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

But it was still done. The driver wasn't harmed and he had video evidence to present to the police of the road rage incident.

I remember that. didn't that bloke have to go to court for something else not that long ago??

[tweeked]

No matter what happens on the road I just wave and say sorry. Ever since i started doing that I haven't had an issue with anyone.

It just isnt worth yelling at someone from inside of your car, it acheives nothing other than to escalate what is going on.

[Boza]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

It doesn't take much to set clowns off now days

I just point and laugh at them

Sends the crackies nuts

Very true I was driving through a shopping center car park my car was already half way through a pedestrian crossing when some nut carrying his shopping decided to run out near my car and scream into my window for not giving way when he was no where near the crossing I told him to relax and drove off a cool head always prevails plus you can get in just as much trouble if you start belting him.

Also was parking in the local shopping strip and some young clown was trying to be a hero in front of some young girls started screaming that I hit his front bumper and said I dented his front personal plate which was BARDUP if you know what that means I do.
I told the young gentleman that I have a reversing camera that records everything and that I didn't feel any bump in my car he turned red and I walkd away fromm the sitution quietly

[FormulaFG]

A dash cam sounds like a good idea. I might look into it myself.

The only thing is that it doesn't actually protect you physically in any way, just records it for further follow up. A weapon on the other hand might.

[Silver Ghia]

A lot of frustrations wont happen if drivers gets in the lane they need to be in, well before their turnoff.

Too many times drivers try to push into a lane where others already in that lane have moved into further back when they could safely and with no agro.

[Boza]

The fire extinguisher is an excellent idea my sister keeps mace in her car maybe I should get some too

[Dash_XR]

Dash cams are good but they are also more motivation to get into the car to grab the evidence so try and hide it.

[fordomatic]

i have the club lock in my patrol that has come in handy once. It works both ways, just this morning i was in the patrol in the far left lane coming up to a red light in an 80 zone. A P plater decided he wanted to go from the far right lane (3 lane highway) and get into my lane. He indicated his intentions early but i just dont have enough braking power in the patrol as i do in the falcon. I just missed him and his lucky i know the car well and didnt lock up the brakes. I guess he didnt think about the braking capability of a 24 year old 3 tonne vehicle, if i was in the falcon it wouldn't have been an issue.

So i got beside him at the lights to simply and calmly let him know to be careful as i nearly cleaned him up, then he abused me, kept going off his head, i was calm the whole time, i had the MRS in the car and never lose it with her around. All i was doing was trying to educate him, because he was a P plater i wasn't actually that angry about it as everyone makes mistakes.

These days there is a heap more aggression on the roads. All dash cams do is capture the footage, they don't do squat to keep you safe.

[Maka]

Originally Posted by Boza

The fire extinguisher is an excellent idea my sister keeps mace in her car maybe I should get some too

Fire extinguisher on the cards for me, my crooklock is getting old now

cheers, Maka