HeesBonafide
Regular Member
imported post
I picked up my 8yr old son today at school and pulled out into the street to start our drive home. We came to a stop light where I was taking a right hand turn on red, and there was a good sized gap for me to turn right into traffic safely (even though I didn’t come to a complete stop).
I have a fast car that has been upgraded with plenty of power and torque and I was goingabout 45 when I took my foot off the gas a ¼ block from the corner. There was a guy in a pickup (who ended up behind me in traffic after the turn) decided that he did not like me coming into traffic and decides to come up on my ass after this and starts to honk his horn – I ofcourse ignore him.
We come to an intersection where we are at a red light (and I just so happen receive a phone call as I was slowing down– yes I do wear a headset). Once I am stopped, my SA is not the greatest since I am trying to pay attention to the call, when I get a loud couple of whacks on my driver side window. I turn startled and the driver of the truck decided to get out of his truck and wanted to have a conversation with me. It started with, “HEY ASSHOLE, YOU CAN’T TAKE A FREE RIGHT HAND TURN……….”
Well, I was glad I kept my wits about myself; I just turned away as the light turned green and drove off. Of course he was not happy with that and then decides to tail me for a couple of miles.
My son asked me what he was doing and we talked about how this is a good example of how you “walk away” instead of meeting fire with fire. My son asked where the man was and I told him that the man was still behind us. My son turns around to see and the poor ‘ol bastard decides to flip my son off – we had a laugh over that.
Now to the reflection of the incident: I was not packing and part of me wonders what I would have done if I was, and would I have acted differently if my son was not in the car. I also realized that even though I was wearing my headset, I was too focused on the call to take notice of this guy coming up in my rear view mirror – I received an easy lesson to stay on top of have good Situation Awareness.
I was proud of how I did handle the situation; he was angry and wanted to make sure that I heard what he had to say. I did not engage him, flip him off or try to justify why I did what I did, I just drove off – the driving off actually felt good when I saw the look on his face of, “oh, he didn’t just drive off on me?!” -- I love justice served cold.
It also made me think how lucky the guy could have been. If there was someone else, who may have been a couple beers short of a six-pack and was not as concerned or decided to meet his ego head as to how this situation may have turned out.
Guess, my whole point is: be kind to each other, don’t be an idiot and decided that it is your civic duty to tell someone the rules of the road or how they are to act – leave that to the cops, that is their job. And if, for some reason you DO decide to do that, maybe decide to wait until you’re are off the road and maybe start the conversation, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” Or, “I would hate for you to get an overpriced ticket and wanted to let you know that…” in a CALM, inviting manner, instead of "HEY ASSHOLE" -- not interested in what you have to say then.
Hope you all have a great weekend and be safe!
I picked up my 8yr old son today at school and pulled out into the street to start our drive home. We came to a stop light where I was taking a right hand turn on red, and there was a good sized gap for me to turn right into traffic safely (even though I didn’t come to a complete stop).
I have a fast car that has been upgraded with plenty of power and torque and I was goingabout 45 when I took my foot off the gas a ¼ block from the corner. There was a guy in a pickup (who ended up behind me in traffic after the turn) decided that he did not like me coming into traffic and decides to come up on my ass after this and starts to honk his horn – I ofcourse ignore him.
We come to an intersection where we are at a red light (and I just so happen receive a phone call as I was slowing down– yes I do wear a headset). Once I am stopped, my SA is not the greatest since I am trying to pay attention to the call, when I get a loud couple of whacks on my driver side window. I turn startled and the driver of the truck decided to get out of his truck and wanted to have a conversation with me. It started with, “HEY ASSHOLE, YOU CAN’T TAKE A FREE RIGHT HAND TURN……….”
Well, I was glad I kept my wits about myself; I just turned away as the light turned green and drove off. Of course he was not happy with that and then decides to tail me for a couple of miles.
My son asked me what he was doing and we talked about how this is a good example of how you “walk away” instead of meeting fire with fire. My son asked where the man was and I told him that the man was still behind us. My son turns around to see and the poor ‘ol bastard decides to flip my son off – we had a laugh over that.
Now to the reflection of the incident: I was not packing and part of me wonders what I would have done if I was, and would I have acted differently if my son was not in the car. I also realized that even though I was wearing my headset, I was too focused on the call to take notice of this guy coming up in my rear view mirror – I received an easy lesson to stay on top of have good Situation Awareness.
I was proud of how I did handle the situation; he was angry and wanted to make sure that I heard what he had to say. I did not engage him, flip him off or try to justify why I did what I did, I just drove off – the driving off actually felt good when I saw the look on his face of, “oh, he didn’t just drive off on me?!” -- I love justice served cold.
It also made me think how lucky the guy could have been. If there was someone else, who may have been a couple beers short of a six-pack and was not as concerned or decided to meet his ego head as to how this situation may have turned out.
Guess, my whole point is: be kind to each other, don’t be an idiot and decided that it is your civic duty to tell someone the rules of the road or how they are to act – leave that to the cops, that is their job. And if, for some reason you DO decide to do that, maybe decide to wait until you’re are off the road and maybe start the conversation, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” Or, “I would hate for you to get an overpriced ticket and wanted to let you know that…” in a CALM, inviting manner, instead of "HEY ASSHOLE" -- not interested in what you have to say then.
Hope you all have a great weekend and be safe!