Raging Roads

About 6 years ago, I was the victim of a really nasty road rage incident. Driving home from work one evening, Scott in the passenger seat, a parked car pulled out in front of me. I had time to stop, but only just, so I gave a quick toot of the horn and didn't think much of it. At the next set of lights, about 100m down the road, I noticed a female get out of the passenger side of the car behind me. Everything happened so quickly, I had no idea what to do. She opened my door, attempted to smack my face and then proceeded to spit... yes, spit all over me. One of the most revolting and scary experiences I've ever had. It was all over in seconds, before she took off back to the car, and the male driver sped off, mounting the footpath as they went. We reported it to the police and months later they caught up with the culprits. By this stage, I was keen to put the whole ordeal behind me, so I didn't press charges. It seriously changed my approach to driving and keeping my doors locked at ALL times.


Then last Friday evening, I had another incident of road rage thrust upon me. This time, with both of my boys in the car and no husband in the passenger seat. I had just pulled out of the car park after work and was waiting to turn out of a small lane onto an exceptionally busy 3 lane road. The car behind me started beeping long and loud, the minute it pulled up. The weather in Sydney was atrocious. Raining, cold, the roads like an ice rink and the cars were streaming by continuously on the main road. At first I didn't realise I was the one being beeped. Surely no one would be beeping me waiting for a break in the traffic?! I was wrong. The impatient, sorry excuse for a man behind me was literally sitting on his horn, harassing me to move my car out into oncoming traffic.


When I finally moved out into my lane, I noticed him pull out quickly behind me and move to the lane next to mine. I was furious. Stupidly, I wound my window down and motioned for him to do the same. He let fly with a barrage of heated words (none swearing thank goodness, I despise when people are abusive using foul language) about how I needed to learn to drive and that I had plenty of opportunity to pull into the traffic. I told him I had two babies in my car and I was in no way putting my family at risk for a matter of seconds, nor was I going to put oncoming traffic under pressure to break in wet conditions. He yelled back that he also had his child in the car, clearly trying to make a point. I was rattled, shaky and angry. The hide of him. A professional looking male, behaving that way towards a Mother with her children in the car. I was disgusted. This is the city I have always known and loved. But this is also the world we live in nowadays. I'm sure there were cases of road rage long before my time. Though the frequency and intensity is like never before. Indeed, the roads are raging.