Miata Mailing List: October 1998, Message #259

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Well, I have seen more comments on the idea...on the basic idea of what 
can you do when some aresehole is on your butt, simply because you are 
there in front of him and he wants to go through you, etc.

I think Keith Tanner took it the wrong way, but my main emphasis was 
that I do not want to cause any deadly actions that would kill myself or 
the driver of the tailgater (or the hundreads behind him) - see my 
original post.

I do not think that coasting into some dirt or gravel is the best way to 
do things....that idea is even more deadlier than the squirt method, 
since I have lost control of a car in that manner.  I have also chipped 
up my car by getting rocks kicked up.  Another time I grabbed a big 
piece of metal that later flattened two wheels.  You take a gamble on 
this idea.

Regardless, it happened again to me last night.  Some idiot came 
SCREAMING up the fast lane as I managed to get there to continue crusing 
my usual 80mph (yes, that is fast).  Well he stopped and hugged my butt 
and didn't even flash his lights or whatever.  He hugged me for 1.5 
miles (all this time, I am doing 80-mph) and then decided to swerve hard 
right and went to lane #1 and floored it passing everyone in his sights.  
It was a Rodeo with two young looking individuals with their seats all 
the way back (you get the idea).  What an idiot.  What makes this even 
more pathetic is that there was no way that I could have moved over at 
any time to let him pass.

You think that was rough, take a look at what happened last night (from 
the Atlanta news):

*******Police seek "road rage" attacker*******
*******By Scott Marshall, The Journal-Constitution*******

Police searched today for a motorist who struck a woman with his pickup 
truck in what Fulton County police are calling one of the worst cases of 
road rage they have seen. 

Sharon Gunby, 36, of Roswell suffered a concussion, sprained shoulder, a 
dislocated finger and broken bones in her foot when a man ran into her 
after she got out of her car Wednesday afternoon, said Fulton police 
Cpl. Alan Tennant. 

"He could have killed her very easily," said Tennant. 

"I would just like to ask him when he's in a calm state of mind, 'Why?' 
" Gunby said. 

The confrontation began shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday on Arnold Mill 
Road near Lackey Road in north Fulton. 

Gunby was northbound on Arnold Mill Road when a man in a red Ford F-150 
pickup tailgated and bumped the white 1995 GMC sport-utility vehicle she 
was driving, police said. 

Gunby said the man's tailgating had worried her so much that she was 
trying to call 911 before he struck her. The pickup driver continued 
tailgating even after the impact. 

Gunby stopped, got out of her car and walked back toward the pickup to 
get his tag number. When she asked the man why he bumped her, he backed 
up, striking another vehicle that had stopped behind him. 

The pickup driver then took off, headed toward Cherokee County on Arnold 
Mill Road. 

Gunby and the other driver pulled onto Lackey Road and got out of their 
vehicles. While they were talking, the man in the pickup returned. He 
got out of the pickup, and Gunby told him she had called police. He 
cursed at her, grabbed her phone and broke off the antenna. Then he got 
back into his pickup and struck Gunby with it, pinning her against the 
side of the other vehicle that had stopped. 

The pickup driver then accelerated, and the passenger-side mirror of his 
truck struck Gunby, knocking her down. The man drove to the end of 
Lackey Road, which is a dead-end street, turned around and then drove 
back toward Gunby, who was lying in the road. 

"Get up, don't lay there and act hurt," he yelled, as the other driver 
pulled her out of the way. 

The pickup was last seen heading north on Arnold Mill Road. Police, who 
were still trying to track the man down today, said they will charge him 
with felony aggravated assault if they identify him. 

Gunby said today she was second-guessing herself and wondering whether 
she could have done anything to avoid the man. 

"I'm thinking I never should have even called" 911 when the man bumped 
her. "Maybe I should have let him go on his merry way," she said. 

But Gunby also believes people should become involved when witnessing 
such behavior. "Otherwise, that's kind of like burying your head in the 
sand." 

Still, she remains scared of the man, whoever he is. 

"I just don't understand why he came back," she said. "He was gone. It 
was over. . . . And then for him to come back and laugh, and say, 'don't 
lay there."' 
**********************************************************************

So let me ask this to the group....what would happend if I decided to 
stomp on the brakes (on the highway) and let him slam into me.  Put 
aside the injury idea, but let just say if that happened....who would be 
at fault.  Does anyone know the law for this one?

Also, would it be any different if something flew in front of my car and 
I slammed on the brakes in order to miss it, resulting in the guy 
ramming me from behind?

I find this interesting and the more it happens to me, I feel as if the 
person being tailgated is the victim here.  We are the ones who have our 
rear vision hampered by idiots and to be honest, the Miata is not the 
best when trying to get out of the way of a huge SUV, etc.



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Peter Brusa/Peachtree Miata Web Editor <repete@hotmail.com>
1991 Classic Red Miata/Team R-Speed
Home Page: <http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/garage/4991>           
Peachtree Miata Club: <http://www.mindspring.com/~peachtreemiata/>
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