Road rage does happen for no reason
You can set off a nut for absolutely no rational reason
Going too slow, trying to pass, pulling into his traffic lane, blowing your horn, or just for looking sideways
Ever try to pass someone on a country road at night? Think you deserve death for that?
One night some years ago we pulled out to pass another driver and this enraged him, he repeatedly sped up, slowed down, wouldn’t let us pass, wouldn’t let us not pass, and for several wracking minutes refused to let our family back into the lane, even though a truck was coming at us head on
Luckily we braked and slipped in behind him just as the truck went by, then he played the “hit the brakes” routine
Then the nut kept going, is still out there as far as anyone could tell
Sometimes when there is a fatal accident for no known cause I wonder if someone caused it out of rage
I’ve always made a distinction between a psycho behind the wheel and road rage. Anybody who has driven for very long has encountered one. Best thing to do is back off, let them go, get off that road and change routes. My example would be the first day driving back to the office after my father passed away.
I was driving carefully because I felt out of it, had felt that way since I got the call, to come to the hospital. Almost to the office, pulled up behind an older GM sedan, elderly black man driving. It was in town, so traffic in several lanes, we were in the left. He puttered on after the green light, me in no hurry either, he moved right and we coast up to the next light, then stop.
I see him gesticulating out of the corner of my eye, I thought he was trying to tell me something was wrong with my car, low tire or something. Let the passenger window down and asked him what was wrong. “Why you shine a light down on me, mother&*Y#er, I’ll bust a cap in your @#$,” then incoherent rambling rising in volume and pitch. Took a while to separate myself, we were in traffic, and he was brandishing a gun by that time.
So, I know that can happen. That wasn’t road rage to me, he was just nuts. All I can figure is, the car was practically new and had those bluish halogens, maybe he thought they were high beams? I don’t know. It was weird.
The lady in question certainly was following closely, for someone hitting the brakes to send her off the road. She doesn’t sound all that uninvolved to me.
I had a guy do that to me back in the mid-70’s. I was in a gutless chevy vega gt with the new-fangled 60 series radial tires and he was in a GTO with big drag slicks in the back. He passed to get in front of me and then backed off to 35 (in a 45). Every time I tried to pass, he just sped up. So I backed a few hundred yards off and floored it, finally getting up to 70 (it was a very straight road and it was night). He gunned it as I passed but did not judge my speed. He could not keep up with my momentum.
He followed me for about a quarter mile where I made a HARD turn onto another road. He turned and slid across the intersection and flew over the ditch to embed his car deeply into a 10 foot dirt embankment.
In my life, I’ve been chased by five drivers. Two of them wrecked their cars and one just didn’t have the top speed. It was I-90 in eastern Montana. My governor is at 140 MPH (Chrysler 300M) while his Grand Cherokee’s is at 105 MPH. There were two of them together, actually. I topped out at 140 and lost them and every time I backed off to 90 they would catch up. So I lost them a last time and exited the freeway to get gas. Hitting an off-ramp at around 90 is an interesting experience. Brakes matter.