First of all, one should avoid "rude hand gestures to others." No, getting flipped off doesn't justify physical assault with a truck. But de-escalation and avoiding a confrontation is way better than needlessly risking injury over pride. The cost to repair the car, and hassle of doing it even if insurance covers the dollar cost is way more than a the "cost" of refraining from giving the one finger salute (I assume this is what is meant by "rude hand gesture"). The proper response to being talegated is to move right and let the vehicle pass and be on its way.
I hope the victims rethink their willingness in the future to flip the bird to other drivers. You can't predict who is nuts and there is no benefit to be gained by throwing around insulting gestures. An armed society is polite yada yada....
Assuming that de-escalation doesn't work, there isn't a lot of time in this encounter when I think shooting would be the prudent thing to do. Certainly once the driver exits her truck, is a woman (rather than a 300 pound man) and is not visibly armed, I'd hate to have to defend my use of a gun at that point. In hand, ready? Yes. But I think driving away the better course. I might have considered backing down the emergency lane. I can back faster than most can run and the more distance between her and her truck when I go forward again, the less chance she can catch up to me again.
At the point the truck driver forces them off the road and especially when she hits their car, deadly force would seem to be legally justified, but I wonder how effective at ending the attack in this case. Pretty tough to actually neutralize the threat and as noted, the truck driver is nuts. So no guarantee she'd respond rationally to the presence of a gun. A couple of shots into the radiator as they drove away after being forced off the road would be eminently satisfying, might actually end or at least limit the attack, and in theory should be fully justified. But this was Cali so who knows.
So long as the car is mobile, it provides the greatest protection from the truck and ability to escape the situation. I'd not leave the car unless it was disabled or otherwise unable to move. In that case, the ability to move freely has advantages over being strapped into a seat.
Charles
