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I think most of us has been there: I think it was George Carlin that said, "when you're driving and someone is going slower than you, they're an idiot. Also anyone going faster than you is a maniac".
But anyway sometimes those idiots and maniacs get raging angry with you when you're not going their speed or for whatever else reasons. According to police, a news clip about what to do when encountering a road-rager, do not interact with the rager, do not pull over. Call 911. Isn't it illegal to use the phone while driving? Maybe not if you're dialing 911? That must be the exception? I once cut someone off because they were in my blind spot when I was changing lanes. They tail-gated me super close in their giant truck all the way to Hilo. I tried waving, "sorry" when I realized I pulled in front of them but to no avail. When I reached Hilo, they continued following me so I started heading toward the kinoole Police station. That worked and they stopped. Scary now-a-days with people like Mark Charr out there.
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"" ...do not interact with the rager, do not pull over. Call 911"
Sounds like good advice. The chances of any further interaction with a driver in a state of rage helping the situation would likely be remote. Much more likely it would only serve as an opportunity for some misinterpretation through a temptation to further wallow in their rage. Roadways tend not to be ideal places for reasoned and calming discourse.
Sounds like you made a good decision just going ahead and driving toward the police station in your situation of being followed on into town. Better than heading to the nearest Hooters which doesn't exist, leading to only a further sense of rage for all involved.
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do not pull over. Call 911.
Worst road rage I ever encountered in Puna was a maniac who stepped on it at the old Keaau merge, tried to drive around me and weasel in. I didn't let him so he drove me off the road, came over to my car screaming, arms flailing. His wife sat in the passenger seat looking terrified so I knew this wasn't the first time she had witnessed his temper. I didn't engage, got his license plate number, and called the police. They told me he was an off duty officer.
Did I wish to file a report? On a crazy person with access to my home address? And the upper hand in any subsequent police report? "Not at this time. Thank you."
“We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope,” James Baldwin to Margaret Mead in the book A Rap On Race
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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"Worst road rage I ever encountered in Puna was a maniac who stepped on it at the old Keaau merge, tried to drive around me and weasel in. I didn't let him so he drove me off the road, came over to my car screaming, arms flailing"
He would only do that once in Texas......
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quote:
Originally posted by microage97
He would only do that once in Texas......
Or any other state with CC laws.
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Ah yes, once again the vigilante retiree testosterone oozes on PW. CC? OC! If only we could openly carry our .357 magnums we wouldn't be confined to geriatric message board rage and the rage of the roads would be no more.
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I never said I would have done anything different, but in TX people get shot all the time on the highways. This rager would be on borrowed time there.....
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It is not a good thing that there are places in this country where a road rager would be executed on the spot for his behavior. What we need is less rage and not more. In there mere half-decade that I have been here I have witnessed more impatient driving. The story I like to tell when I'm in America is of the time I was about to pull out from the driveway of a local business and right onto the main drag in Hilo. I went to the edge of the driveway, stopped, and checked to make sure I had a paper I needed. When I looked up again, six cars had stopped just to let me out onto the highway. No one honked. I shot a shaka and quickly zipped out, grateful to be here.
But since then I have the sneaking suspicion that others followed me here. I am starting to see some of the behavior that I saw in America. I'm also starting to see suggestions that people who exhibit this behavior be summarily executed.
I know that not all of this is imported. But I do think some of it is. I was with friends from San Diego on the Kona side a couple years ago and we were behind a pokey Japanese lady on the belt road. My friend's husband had steam coming out of his over how slow she was going. He gestured in exasperation and wondered why people were like that here! You know, I need to get to my next island destination as fast as possible so I can hurry up and relax!
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Having read the Hawaii Driver's Manual several times recently and taking the online quizzes, the question of "What do you do if you have an aggressive driver behind you?" comes up several times. The correct answer is pull over if possible or drive calmly to the next place you can pull over. It says do not confront the aggressive driver.
The tailgating actually seems to have decreased in the past few months. Also, HPD is putting more unmarked cars on Hwy 130, during the shoulder widening stretch (see him tucked back in a driveway sometimes) and sometimes right after the Kea'au transfer station, set back on a side road. The past few months, there have been several times an aggressive driver has been behind me, then pass at high speed. It is so rewarding to see them pulled over up the road. There are two HPD that must have a quota along Hwy 130 between Kea'au and Orchidland. My hope is enough infractions for HPD to warrant a couple more unmarked SUV's. Those things are slick, if you are attentive, the blue bubble or the blue headlight grill is noticeable but otherwise they blend right in.
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
