OMFG some people seem to be born to annoy.
Casually waiting for traffic to clear an intersection I was at I see the light a block ahead turn green & the vehicles start to move. I'm not one of the inconsiderate dorks that likes to pull into an intersection & when the light truns red the traffic STILL hasn't moved they're left blocking the cross traffic. So I see that they've moved enough so I'll have room on the other side of the intersection. I drive across & this goof in a civic pulls up to a yeild lane, looks at me then cuts me off with about 5' or so. Slows down & then just darts out infront of me. I hit the brakes & the horn & Mr. flips me the bird!
I'm in shock, what a freaking tool! I pull around him, cut him off while swearing at him, gestruring & he gives me the finger again!
PARK! door open, around the back of the blazer & I wave him to get out, "c'mon, lets do this you F'ng <insert a very long slue of EXTREMELY fancy words>". He looks & up goes the middle finger again.
I'm at my whits end now - at the end, not past it! I wanted to kick his DS window in but uhhh No, not a good idea so I horked up a good one & spit on his window. Would you believe he stayed in his car?!

Wtf is with people... If you do something stupid own up to it. Don't hide behind a door because you feel safe. He's lucky I still had a presence of mind because there are LOTS who would have pulled him out of his car & beat him senseless for flipping them off after what he did.
Just last night in Winnipeg there was a man who was shot by the guy steeling his p/u truck.

 

you had a great day I had a great day too

Someone rear ended my rig at work

the roads were icy and she just smacked my trailer

 

I don't intend to be disrespectful but I'd argue that you lost your presence of mind the moment you let the jack@$$ affect you. Getting out of your truck was a horrible idea and even if you stopped yourself before physically doing anything to him, you still escalated the situation. Spitting on his car was also a terrible idea.

Just my opinion...

 

we all find that day one day in our lifes but i do agree with you

 

I can admit I have extreme anger problems... I would have done the same or worse.. and trust me, mandated anger management courses only make one more pissed off.
But, for the last almost 7 years my girlfriend has kept me sane, All I resort to is yelling out the window and laying on the horn when some idiot does a dumb thing. Old me would have busted out his window in your situation.

 

what i find is that if you wave and smile at them when they are pissed off at you it actually makes them more aggravated that you dont care what they think.
i like to think it bugs them more when they cant get under your skin because they are honestly not worth my time....and frankly i like the aggravation on their face.

 

Yes & no Matt... I did get carried away by getting out, but after he cuts me off then flips me the bird twice & laughs I felt as he was insultive. Cutting me off & mocking me by flipping me off when I hit the horn because he almost caused an accident?! That infuriated me.
Yes I tried to escalate the situation by approaching him & asking him to step out. If he would have hit me 1st NOTHING would have been better because I'd have the law on my side where as he was hiding behind it. That brings me to my last statement in there, about people being lucky as to whom they **** off, he's lucky I wasn't the wrong person in this day & age.
All in all thanks for the feedback from both you & John but as it happened (& words can't really replicate it) = the shock of almost hitting his car or swerving into the next lane where another car may have been, to his "pfft who cares lol" reactions, it does add light.

It could be my life at work etc, if someone does something wrong you don't go to lay blame but to communicate something is wrong & they have to adjust how they do things. The simplest & pretty much only way in a vehicle is the horn, but to get flipped off by letting someone knowing they did something wrong & then they show you they obviously don't give a rats ***... not good territory for me I suppose.

Life is learning & I'm glad I didn't carry on... but I kind of wish he would have lol

<edit> Just talking with the gf & as I was reading all the posts to her she said OMG that's you isn't it?! She does know me well lol
<edit again> she reminded me of the title of this post also & that's what it was.

 

I don't know anything about the laws in Canada but just because someone swings first doesn't mean that you'd have the law on your side. There are a number of situations where preemptive use-of-force is justifiable and if he can show a jury that you were approaching and escalating the conflict, many would side with him that you were, in fact, the aggressor. (I could be way off, I truly know nothing about Canadian laws)

I agree with you 100% about not being able to communicate. Everyone takes a horn honk as a personal insult. It would be nice if there were some way to communicate with the other driver about what they did wrong and the potential consequences of their driving skills (or lack thereof).

I think you were both lucky. He was lucky that you recognized your limits and backed down and you were lucky that he stayed in his car instead of doing something stupid. In the end, all that really matters it that you make it home safely to your family.

Again, this is just my opinion. I wasn't there and I'm relatively anonymous to you so it's easy for me to criticize. Thank you for not taking it as an insult either. A friend of mine once got in a fight on the side of a freeway here and when I tried to explain how he was just as much at fault as the other guy, he took it as an insult and got all pissy and mad.

Indeed. The best revenge is living well

 

Dude, I feel ya on the civic guy. All the more reason to get a pa system and blast the guy out or better yet, a train horn and just lay on it for a couple minutes. Bust the guys eardrums open. When somebody does that to me, I lay on the horn literally for a good 30 seconds until they get aggravated. Then when I get there attention, I wave and smile . They always seem to like that combo haha.

 

(TIBBY)
lol I've seen a few sets of "train" horns or ones that are over 140db at least. I've always wanted to set like that on a switch because used as a horn I'd be in big caa caa with the police. But as a secondary "attention getter" OMFG watch the people a block away JUMP as they blast!

(MATT)
Situationally, if I get out, go up to him/his vehicle, don't touch either, yell my *** off, point & hurl insults - nothing but disturbing the peace, maybe.
If or when we confront eachother & continue with the above yelling etc once a person touches, pushes or hits another they are allowed to protect themselves. As the person that got pushed etc I am not sure what the others intentions are & usually the person the initiats contact will continue immediately & in harsher ways.
So as long as I'm a few feet away, hands at my sides or at most less than an arms length (not being aggresive in stance/IE in his face or crowding him) & he hits me or shoves me (on a street that could be deadly intent)... I'm going to kick his gluteus maximus as much as I can because he put my life in jeapardy.
It would be a long night at the cop shop for sure until they ironed out the details & if I kept my head about me (even though I was close to losing it I'll admit lol) I'd be fine.
But yeah, talking with the gf last night she asked "what if I were with you, would you have reacted the same way?" I said no, because she could be in danger as well if I couldn't have handled things. <--- That adds a LOT of light to things like that & yes, it was road rage as she said.
But in here I know anyone will get a varied degree of replies/results with almost anything.
Thanks again for speaking openly.
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