Road Rage - Question of the Week

You are driving in your vehicle at 80 km/h in an 80 zone on a three-lane road approximately 500 metres from a robot at which robot you intend to turn right. A person in a separate civilian vehicle approaches at a high speed from your rear and drives to the point of almost touching your bumper with the intention to force you out of his way. As you are turning right, you do not move over and this other person then in his anger overtakes you, turns and stops in front of your vehicle to prevent you from driving further. You both get out of the vehicle and he then aggressively starts swearing at you. Fortunately, this is where the altercation ends and you and he get into your vehicles and then drive off.

There are obviously many ways this matter could have proceeded and we will give our suggestions as to what should have been done but we would like to ask you as the readers what your suggestions are that should have been done in such a situation?

We will post our answer to this scenario within a week but welcome all your suggestions first.

The intention with our answers to these sorts of questions is to prepare you, our audience, as to what we believe the best course of action would be should you ever find yourselves in a situation such as this.

Answer

There are obviously many ways to deal with any issue and we therefore always welcome independent views on these matters although, in our experience in dealing with many such issues, this would be our recommendation. Whilst we always believe there are two sides to a story, we are answering this question from the perspective of the driver who was forced off the road.

First and foremost, if you can get any video evidence of any such incident, it always helps tell the true story in any later legal proceedings. These matters become your word against the other person’s word and even witnesses have their own versions of what happened at the time. Most people are always in possession of a powerful weapon in these scenarios…. Their Cell Phones. You need to always be ready with it that it becomes second nature to immediately either press the voice recorder or video recorder to document these interactions. We recommend that you practice once in the morning and once in the evening getting the recorder started from a locked position on your phone. Once the recorder has started, start describing all the events that unfold so that it is clear concise and can be used in any possible legal proceedings.

Secondly (an optional extra), get yourself a dashcam. Again, the person with video evidence generally wins. If you can get the person’s number plate either on your cell phone or on the dashcam, you will have his details if the matter is to progress further.

It is easier said than done as your adrenaline immediately gets pumping when you are threatened but always try and remain calm, breathe and keep your wits about you. You have no idea who this person is that has forced you off the road? You have no idea what mental state this person is in. Is he/she armed? Is it a possible attempt to make you think it is just road rage when in fact it is a cover to get you out of the car so that they can rob you of your personal items and even hijack your vehicle? Be vigilant and ready with your vehicle to get out of there as quickly as possible.

If it is just a road rage incident and you get out of the car, beat the person to a pulp and leave, you could again be on the losing end in that assault charges are laid against you even though you were the person wronged.

What the person has done by forcing you off the road and threatened to hurt you is commit two criminal offences:

1. Reckless and negligent Driving

Section 63 of the National Road Traffic Act

(1) No person shall drive a vehicle on a public road recklessly or negligently. (2) Without restricting the ordinary meaning of the word "recklessly" any person who drives a vehicle in wilful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property shall be deemed to drive that vehicle recklessly. (3) In considering whether subsection (1) has been contravened, the court shall have regard to all the circumstances of the case, including, but without derogating from the generality of subsection (1) or (2), the nature, condition and use of the public road upon which the contravention is alleged to have been committed, the amount of traffic which at the relevant time was or which could reasonably have been expected to be upon that road, and the speed at and manner in which the vehicle was driven. The speed and manner in which the vehicle was driven needs to be proven by the State. Here the State must rely entirely on evidence.

2. Assault

Assault consists of unlawfully and intentionally

1. applying force to the person of another;

2. inspiring a belief in another person that force is immediately to be applied to him or her;

The best route, be ready to get out of there as quickly as possible and get to safety. Whilst doing this, try to take down the details of the others person license plate number. If you are lucky and got video or voice recording evidence, even better. You can then either leave the matter here and move on with your life or you can go to the nearest police station and lay criminal charges against the other person to allow them to explain their actions in a criminal trial. If the other driver is found guilty of the above criminal offences it will adversely affect their life with job applications, the right to possess a firearm, possibly even land that person with a prison sentence. Nobody wants a criminal record on their name.

Hopefully, the above scenario never happens to you but we are here to give ideas of how to prepare yourself should you ever be involved with such a situation.