In some places it is considered assault. And they can add 'aggravated' or 'with deadly weapon' as well. Don't brake check, unless you find yourself in an action movie scene it the situation calls for it.
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In some places it is considered assault. And they can add 'aggravated' or 'with deadly weapon' as well. Don't brake check, unless you find yourself in an action movie scene it the situation calls for it.
apvbguy
Banned
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
I'm sad to say I agree.
I really think the best thing to do is to be defensive and cautious. I was weirded out that the guy kept tailgating me, but that was certainly not enough to want to escalate the situation.
That is like saying:
C'mon... I'm not talking about throwing a haymaker and knocking the guy cold here ...
Just a little reach back ... let him see the punch coming, then give him a light jab a couple of times.
It doesn't matter if you brake hard or not. If the person behind you overreacts and hits something you can be charged with assault in places.
It just is not good to do under any circumstance. Either call the cops, deal with the idiot, or pull over and let them pass. Give them the bird when they drive by if it makes you feel better, it does for me.
mknox
Well-Known Member
It can be considered "dangerous driving" or "careless driving" (one is worse that the other, but I can't recall which is which). Apparently, if you rear-end someone, the cops will determine if the car you hit was moving or stopped at the time, and if it was moving, the charges are the worse one (between "careless" and "dangerous").
Indeed.
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What if he over reacts to any other braking situation and he failed to leave sufficient following distance?
What if I realize I was going 5 mph over the limit and applied my brakes to slow down?
To the OP,
I would think the gesture from the F150 guy was directed more at luxury car rather than Tesla. Just a guess though. BTW, it's pretty easy to spend upward of 50K on a F150, so it's not exactly a poor man's vehicle. I try not to spend too much time thinking about people who react like that. If he's getting that angry about a traffic merge, think how unhappy a person he must be in general.
I would think the gesture from the F150 guy was directed more at luxury car rather than Tesla. Just a guess though. BTW, it's pretty easy to spend upward of 50K on a F150, so it's not exactly a poor man's vehicle. I try not to spend too much time thinking about people who react like that. If he's getting that angry about a traffic merge, think how unhappy a person he must be in general.
bsd
Member
I've had two unpleasant interactions with the same truck. This truck has gothic lettering along the side saying Xxxx Farms (haven't been able to decipher the first part; it starts with either a C or G) and has a big smoke stack poking upwards behind the cab. The driver can put the engine into some mode to turn it into Smaug and cause huge amounts of thick and stinky black smoke to emanate from this stack.
The first time he dangerously overtook me on a single-lane regional road, and then started belching out the nasty smoke. I couldn't make out his license plate. I slowed down to make space. He slowed too, but then needed to accelerate to belch more smoke. There was heavy traffic in the other direction that prevented me from overtaking the twit. This continued until we came to a side road where I turned off — fortunately he couldn't see due to the smoke.
I saw him a second time months later, though I didn't realize it was him at first. I was driving in the passing lane in heavy traffic on the 401 (a major three lane expressway). I saw this truck come in on an entrance ramp, and make a foolish cut into the middle lane. As I passed him, he must have recognized the car as I then saw him in my rear view mirror undertake (very common here) and then weave trying to get ahead of us. He had just pulled in a car ahead of us when I recognized the truck. And I fortuitously realized we needed to get off at the next exit. The stats aligned and I managed to get off before he did.
I'm told these belcher stacks are allowed for farm vehicles that do field work. Next time I see him I'll be sure to get him on video.
The first time he dangerously overtook me on a single-lane regional road, and then started belching out the nasty smoke. I couldn't make out his license plate. I slowed down to make space. He slowed too, but then needed to accelerate to belch more smoke. There was heavy traffic in the other direction that prevented me from overtaking the twit. This continued until we came to a side road where I turned off — fortunately he couldn't see due to the smoke.
I saw him a second time months later, though I didn't realize it was him at first. I was driving in the passing lane in heavy traffic on the 401 (a major three lane expressway). I saw this truck come in on an entrance ramp, and make a foolish cut into the middle lane. As I passed him, he must have recognized the car as I then saw him in my rear view mirror undertake (very common here) and then weave trying to get ahead of us. He had just pulled in a car ahead of us when I recognized the truck. And I fortuitously realized we needed to get off at the next exit. The stats aligned and I managed to get off before he did.
I'm told these belcher stacks are allowed for farm vehicles that do field work. Next time I see him I'll be sure to get him on video.
mknox
Well-Known Member
I had an encounter last night on a CA Freeway. Some thugs in a big truck decided to pull in front of me and throw a can of something (beer/soda) out their window; it hit the street but sprayed all over my car. They then slammed their brakes and attempted several times to swerve into me and harass me. I finally exited. No idea what would have provoked them other than me being in a Tesla.
I try not to drive like an ass... and yet I can say I generally have had more negative experiences directed towards me in the 2 years driving a Tesla vs. the previous 20 years driving Honda's.
I try not to drive like an ass... and yet I can say I generally have had more negative experiences directed towards me in the 2 years driving a Tesla vs. the previous 20 years driving Honda's.
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I can honestly say that in nearly two years of driving my Tesla, 52,000 miles and in more than 20 States I do not recall a single incident of this nature in my experience.
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
You are lucky then. I have been in a hand full of situations where people were clearly aggressive towards me. Usually jacked up pickup trucks, but just earlier this week it was a Caddi Escalade. Passed me, cut right in front of me and slammed on the breaks. As I tried to pass him since he kept slowing down he was changing lanes in front of me to prevent that.
Thankfully so far no one has thrown an object at my car.
