Encountered a real lunatic today

[Mo1959]

Sounds absolutely horrific. Personally, from your account, I would have thought it would have been worth them at least sending a patrol car to the area to see if they could find him and observe his driving. If it was as bad as this surely they would be entitled to stop him and give him a drink/drugs test?

Glad he didn't cause you any physical harm but you must have been really scared wondering what the hell he would do next.

 

[fossyant]

Please go down and report it in person. There may be intelligence on the car already. Some drugged or boozed up looney should be off the road

 

[i hate hills]

So today I was driving to work as usual and I found myself behind a car driven quite erratically. We were on a dual carriageway but the driver kept slowing down to approximately 40mph and then speeding up to 80mph again. At first I kept my distance as I drive defensively and like to avoid those who behave in a capricious way but after a while I felt that being slowed down to 40mph and consequently being overtaken by lorries was more dangerous than just overtaking the guy so I did just that.

A mile or two later we reached a roundabout and I turned right onto the now single carriageway A-road, which he must have done too because out of no-where he was on my bumper, so close that I couldn't see his headlights. Despite the fact that I was doing the speed limit of 60mph. We got to the brow of a large hill and I saw queueing traffic up ahead so I eased off and heard a bump, he'd nudged the back of me. When we stopped where the traffic congestion was I got out to see if there was any damage (I don't think so but I will have to clean it to see clearly, it's filthy). This guy then wound down his window and yelled something inaudible at me. I walked over to get the guys details and the second I saw him through the drivers window alarm bells went off - the guys eyes were rolling around all over the place and he couldn't keep his head straight or even look straight at me. He was just rambling and not making any coherent sense. I quickly started to walk back to my car.....and then I heard it..VROOM.....as I was level with my rear passenger door he accelerated as if to overtake my stationary car and then swerved into me, pinning me against my own car. I looked at him through the windows and saw the manic expression on his face, the look of someone totally out of control. I really thought I was going to die, or at least never be able to walk again.

After a while of pinning me against my own car he veered to the right slightly and drove off to join the traffic that had moved all of about 50 yards in that time. Trembling, I got back into the car. As the traffic started to flow again he again didn't keep up with it, still going at 5mph when a gap approximately 300-400 yards to the roundabout developed in front. I took my chance to get away from the lunatic and overtook him, took a different turning to the one I would take to get to work from the roundabout and hid down a country lane before ringing the police. You see, I'd been a good citizen and taken down his registration plate, car model and description (Silver Renault Scenic, ND07NMA, white, late 50s/early 60s, light brown hair, obese).

I rang the non emergency number (101) and they couldn't be less interested. She just said, in an arrogant and patronising voice "if he's hit you and driven off, you need to fill out some forms reporting the RTA". I replied, as calmly as I could that I couldn't care less about the car even if it was damaged, but that a lunatic driver was at large and I got the response "if he's hit you and driven off, you need to fill out some forms reporting the RTA". I then got put on hold. I hung up.

I know this is a cycling forum and this is a driving story but I am really shaken up and just needed to share what happened. I have done a hell of a lot of miles in the car in my life and have encountered the odd case of road rage before but nothing like this. I've just read back and I haven't encapsulated the fear of the situation. When someone is driving their car deliberately at you and you know there's a solid metal object behind you it is just terrifying. It was 10 hours ago now and I cannot stop thinking about it.

Thank you for reading. I feel a little bit calmer for just putting my thoughts and what happened down on (electronic) paper.

Bloody hell mate what a terrifying experience.That's pretty much typical of the police response, couldn't be bothered. I hope they catch this arse and before locking him up and tear up his driving license in front of him.Take care and all the best. Mike.

 

[Saluki]

I too think that you should re-report this nutter. Thank God that you are OK, that could have been life threatening. The driver bloke should not be on the road in that state.
I have rung the non-emergency number before and found them to be apathetic at best, sorry to all you nice Police folk reading but it really seemed to me that woman that I spoke to, on the phone at the non-emergency number had better things to do, like filing her nails or something. After that I went to my local police station and re-reported the incident and they couldn't have been more helpful if they had got up early and practiced. I think that you should pop into your local station and insist on making a report.

Good luck

 

[Typhon]

Thank you for the kind responses everyone. I am physically OK but the mental side of things has just come out in a big way. Someone close to me just rang me and after telling them about it they acted like they didn't really care and changed the conversation - I completely lost it and destroyed a plastic bin in my office for no reason, and then burst into tears. I've never used my fists on anything before, either person or inanimate object and I haven't cried in more than a decade. I'm quite embarrassed to admit all that but it just goes to show how shaken up I was by what happened this morning. It's only now that I've found some calmness and stopped shaking. Perhaps it was delayed shock. I've had close calls in the car or on the bike before but they are over in seconds, this really felt like I was going to be murdered and an incident that was probably over in seconds seemed to last a lifetime.

I will think carefully about whether to go to a police station and report it again, although it would just be my word against his unless they put signs up saying "did you see this incident" which I severely doubt they would unless someone had actually died (seems to be always when it's too late with them).

 

[Arch]

I will think carefully about whether to go to a police station and report it again, although it would just be my word against his unless they put signs up saying "did you see this incident" which I severely doubt they would unless someone had actually died (seems to be always when it's too late with them).

If you report it, they might do nothing.

If you don't report it, they'll definitely do nothing.

You reporting it might just make a difference - if not to your outcome, then some other innocent soul's.

 

[Gary E]

Wow, what a horrific story.

As above, I think you have a civic duty as well as a personal reason to report this and bring this maniac to justice. I'd also give some consideration to raising a complaint about the treatment you received from the police phone line. There isn't a lot of room for misinterpretation in your story so why the hell didn't it get treated appropriately and seriously by the police?
I think, as with any profession, you get good and bad, I would genuinely like to think that given the severity of this encounter the police would want to hear about this and do something.
Glad you're OK (physically at least), now pick up the phone or go to your local station and get some justice!

 

[MarkF]

late middle aged.....obese......eyes rolling........talking nonsense. Sounds just like somebody having a hypoglycaemic attack.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Quite why you didn't dial 999 immediately is beyond me?

As per Arch's comments, how can the police do something if they don't know about it?

Tip: they need to see it themselves, or be told about it.

A police station has a sign saying 'protect and serve', not 'We read your mind'

Like others have said though, glad you're ok.

 

[Typhon]

If you report it, they might do nothing.

If you don't report it, they'll definitely do nothing.

You reporting it might just make a difference - if not to your outcome, then some other innocent soul's.

That's true - even if there's a 1% chance they'll do something it's better than nothing. This happened in the next county (Warwickshire) so I think I should go to a police station in that region. I work at home Tuesdays and Wednesdays, thank God, I don't think I could face the car right now, but I'll go in on Thursday and make a report. At the very least it's a blot against this guy's copybook and if he keeps getting blots, you'd hope the police would look into it.

 

[Typhon]

Quite why you didn't dial 999 immediately is beyond me?

As per Arch's comments, how can the police do soething if they don't know about it?

Tip: they need to see it themselves, or be told about it.

A police station has a sign saying 'protect and serve', not 'We read your mind'

Like others have said though, glad you're ok.

Because of this:

This is the second time ever I've had contact with the police. The first time was when I was in a serious RTA. An old woman pulled out right in front of me on a straight B-road and clipped my car, sending me into a wall. She was fine, my back was destroyed. Injuries I've never recovered from. The police turned up just in time to stop my ambulance from taking me to hospital so that they could breathalyse me. I can't tell you how angry I was when I later found out the old woman wasn't breathalysed.

This was 2pm on a weekday afternoon as well, I was a guy in a suit on the way from the office to a meeting. She was back from lunch at a pub. Putting aside the injuries I'd suffered and my need to get to a hospital - who was more likely to have even had a drink anyway?

And I did ring the police - just the non-emergency number as I was afraid I'd get charged with time wasting or something (which is a valid worry considering how little care they gave to what happened to me). As it was so serious, why didn't she just treat it as a 999 call?

When she put me on hold the message I got was that she was on a 999 call by the way. It's the same people you get put through to. Would dialling a different number to get to them have changed much?

 

[Cubist]

@Typhon. She was wrong. Ring aain, and ask to be out through to a supervisor and insist that you report the matter to a police officer. Don't take no for an answer, and tell them you are reporting an assault, not a collision. The call taker you spoke to has at best a list of stock answers triggered by what you tell her by the sound of things, and is perfectly happy in her logic and thinking.

He may well have been having a hypoglycaemic attack, but unless someone does something about it he will in all probability go and hurt someone.

Don't take being breathalysed personally. The police breathalyse everyone involved in a RTC (except apparently your little old lady) but breathalysing you was not picking on you.

 

[fossyant]

Do you have a local no for Warwickshire Police. We do for Manchester, and you get through to an operator who gets an officer from the right division to call you back. Does work well

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Report it. Make a fuss. Report it. Take it all the way and get the guy convicted. Report it

Also - you now have an elected representative at Police HQ. Tell him/her about the police resonse

 

[Sara_H]

I called 999 when I had my it and run Dec 2011. Didn't make any difference, they went to the registered keepers home 2 weeks later by which time he'd got rid of all the evidence and lined up false alibi's.