Road Rage. It makes headlines periodically. This morning I had an
altercation which could well have made the news, but instead just
fizzled into an incident. It was in New Westminster, BC. Coming out of
Front St. with my big truck I got so cut off by a pickup he could not
even fit lengthwise between my front bumper and the vehicle ahead of
him. This without as much as a hint of signal light – enough to piss off even
a preacher!
Traffic came to a dead stop. There he sat. I decided enough of this; it was my second cut off of the morning. This boy needs to learn of my displeasure! I gave little toot on my air horn, immediately got his guilty-faced attention, saw the f-word on his smirky lips, pointed to his right hand taillight showing no signal, read more f-words on his face. I dynamited my brakes (engaged) opened my door and onto the street! He storms out of his little truck and, anticipating a rumble, takes both hands and shoves me, almost knocking me over. I regained balance and then leaned over but did not hit him (good thing because a buddy of his appeared from another pickup truck). Then I hit him with a sentence I am still proud of, “Young fella. When you cut in like that without signals, you will cause accidents”. Now he and his buddy got into the swearing and the bravado – signals were on and I am so dead! It was too loud and too juvenile. I felt an upper hand. “Listen guys. No need for any of this. Next time you decide to cut me off, at least use your signal, okay”. I said it calmly – thank you Lord! With that I turned around, walked back to my truck, got in and closed the door. They did the same.
I was shook up a bit, but two minutes later we were all moving along in traffic. No revved engines, no more gestures – just two obviously relieved construction workers. I think this trucker made his point, and I got the funny feeling tomorrow morning if they drive same route again, they will perhaps drive a bit less aggressively
Road rage? What a waste. I am glad this time I had presence of mind to address the incident relationally. The other option – sitting and swearing to myself, allows bad habits to continue, and it gives truckers heart attacks! This morning’s road fizzle was time well spent.
Traffic came to a dead stop. There he sat. I decided enough of this; it was my second cut off of the morning. This boy needs to learn of my displeasure! I gave little toot on my air horn, immediately got his guilty-faced attention, saw the f-word on his smirky lips, pointed to his right hand taillight showing no signal, read more f-words on his face. I dynamited my brakes (engaged) opened my door and onto the street! He storms out of his little truck and, anticipating a rumble, takes both hands and shoves me, almost knocking me over. I regained balance and then leaned over but did not hit him (good thing because a buddy of his appeared from another pickup truck). Then I hit him with a sentence I am still proud of, “Young fella. When you cut in like that without signals, you will cause accidents”. Now he and his buddy got into the swearing and the bravado – signals were on and I am so dead! It was too loud and too juvenile. I felt an upper hand. “Listen guys. No need for any of this. Next time you decide to cut me off, at least use your signal, okay”. I said it calmly – thank you Lord! With that I turned around, walked back to my truck, got in and closed the door. They did the same.
I was shook up a bit, but two minutes later we were all moving along in traffic. No revved engines, no more gestures – just two obviously relieved construction workers. I think this trucker made his point, and I got the funny feeling tomorrow morning if they drive same route again, they will perhaps drive a bit less aggressively
Road rage? What a waste. I am glad this time I had presence of mind to address the incident relationally. The other option – sitting and swearing to myself, allows bad habits to continue, and it gives truckers heart attacks! This morning’s road fizzle was time well spent.
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