So last Thursday I found myself the victim of a road rage incident on I-55 just south of Pontiac. While I wasn’t physically injured, the incident left me with a lot of mental trauma – serious mental issues. Furthermore, my car – a source of pride for me – is no longer pristine, but badly scarred and now sits at a body shop getting basically a new left side. I have done something I’ve never done before: I’m seeing a therapist that specializes in victims of crime and police officers involved in serious use-of-force incidents (along with their families). Between that and cleaning up the aftermath of this incident, it has consumed most of my spare time Monday and Tuesday.
I was working to drop of GunNews to our North Central IL distribution hub (Rick’s Automotive in Dwight if you need some) and to mail the bulk mail boxes of GunNews at the Pontiac Post Office (no waiting and no surly staffers) on the way back. Time was about 12:45 as I recall.
A “gentleman” in a brand new F350 pickup truck towing a large and substantial trailer became very unhappy that I, in his words, “cut him off.” I dispute that and have evidence to prove that “cutting off” didn’t happen.
He vented his frustrations by riding right up on my tail – maybe 10 feet behind my car while honking his horn and flashing his lights. I didn’t brake check him or even touch my brakes. I didn’t want to have an accident. After all, I had to do my thing and pick up the kiddos by 3:33.
As soon as I passed the second of two slower trucks, I merged right only to be greeted by two men in the truck, both screaming inside their cab at me. They had pulled alongside my Explorer and paced me so they could let me know more of their displeasure – as if the tail-gating, lights-flashing and horn-honking weren’t enough clues. I saw their veins sticking out of the neck, eyes bulging, etc. All the classic hallmarks of two men consumed with rage – probably exacerbated by one another. I waved for them to move along, after all, until this “interaction” they were travelling a bit faster than me (closer to 80 with that monster trailer than 70) and they were wasting time by lingering by my window to relay their anger at my perceived transgression. (Side note: no “digital communications” were given or received.)
Instead of moving along, the driver instead “moved over” into my lane – with me right next to them – in a willful, malicious effort to force me off the road. They succeeded until I straddled the right side stripe on the edge of the road. Keep in mind we were both at 70mph. I had a truck behind me so braking wasn’t an ideal response.
A fraction of a second later we collided and the force of the impact once more forced me to straddle the painted right side lane marker. (I learned first hand that it doesn’t take a whole lot to push you over at highway speeds.)
Fortunately the other driver didn’t continue with his efforts to push me off the road because I felt his trailer give when we collided. I’m pretty sure he did too. While I never could have resisted him pushing me off the road with that F350 in my smaller vehicle, his trailer could have been his Achilles Heel. A really big and vulnerable heel at that.
I immediately dialed 911 even bef0re reaching the side of the road to report the road rage attack.
After pulling over, and while I was on the phone with 911 and possibly ISP as well, the passenger – a big fella – emerged from the truck, followed by the driver. The red-faced passenger exhibited all of the classic pre-violence indicators – chest puffed out, arms sticking out (gorilla style… inflating his appearance). He walked the 50 yards or so back to my vehicle and upon his arrival began screaming at me. I told him repeatedly to get away from my car while on the phone to 911. I didn’t dare get out of the car (and yes, I watched his hands). Finally after about six commands to get back and get away, he resigned himself that I was probably on the phone to 911 and that I wasn’t going to get out to interact with him. At that point, he returned to the truck and they looked over the truck and trailer for damage.
The ISP showed up about 10-15 minutes later and took statements. The trooper (leaving his name out of it for now) talked with me, then talked with the other two guys.
Upon his return, he said to me in so many words: “It probably won’t surprise you that their statement and yours are pretty much opposites.”
I sort of expected that they weren’t going to fess up to trying to run me off the road in a fit of road rage. To prove what really happened, I worked feverishly to pull up the video on my phone but was unable to do so. So I put the memory card in an adapter and gave it to the Trooper guy to watch on his computer in his car.
“This is really helpful,” he said as we watched it together.
At the same time he said he wanted to run it by his supervisor before deciding on tickets. He said he expected to have an answer on citations within a couple of days.
I haven’t heard a thing from him other than a request the next day for me to resend the video as he couldn’t get the file he copied onto his computer to open.
I dropped what I was doing and immediately facilitated that for him. That was Friday around noon.
Nothing since from ISP. The Trooper was professional, courteous and decent. Made zero mention of my CCW. Handled things well. He just hasn’t followed up as he said he would. That’s contributing to my anxiety over unfinished loose ends. If it weren’t for that failure at follow-up, I would say he did a great job.
My insurance carrier has collected recorded statements from all parties involved and has a copy of my dashcam footage of the incident. They asked me not to publicly share the video. Or stills from it.
State Farm’s investigator has determined the other driver 100% at fault in the accident – and said this is one that they would happily go to court on if the other man’s carrier, AIG, wants to dispute the finding of fault. All thanks to the dashcam.
Folks, if you don’t have a dashcam, you need one. Well, if you drive like a decent human being, you need one.
They’ll protect you from other drivers who falsely try to blame you for collisions. They also protect you from LEOs who might claim you ran a red light. In this case, the dashcam proved its weight in gold and then some.
I just wish I had a side-view camera. That would make criminal charges against the driver of the F-350 a slam-dunk case. To give him a felony conviction for his willful and wanton attempt to force me off the road all because he thought I cut him off.
Oh, the registered owner’s address comes back to the “Consulate General of France” in St. Louis. However the driver was certainly not the registered owner. It wasn’t his money that bought that $100k truck. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and clearly wasn’t a high value man.
Thanks for sharing. Glad you’re okay and don’t drive a squishy car.