A month ago, I had an exciting front-row seat to a near-road rage incident on a residential street. Let me tell you, the two drivers involved were dumber than dirt. This incident involved an angry and crazy driver and a stupid driver. There are lots of stupid drivers out there, believe me.

I had driven to a couple’s house to teach their two sons private Filipino Martial Arts lessons. Their home is close to a four-way intersection.

Just as I pulled into the driveway, the neighbour east of me was backing out of his driveway.

After parking my car, I walked to the front door when I heard a blaring horn. A red SUV had appeared out of nowhere and was behind the neighbour’s car on the street. As a result of encountering the neighbour’s car, the SUV driver (the angry and crazy driver) seemed to rage and engage in aggressive honking.

It was fairly apparent that the SUV had sped down this residential street, as I had not seen him behind me. His behaviour suggested that he was quite agitated. Seeing this, I muttered, “Come on, dude, chillax!”

Unfortunately, the neighbour driver chose to escalate the situation.

After he drove to the four-way intersection, he sat at the stop sign for what seemed like a full minute. No other vehicles except the neighbour and the SUV were at the four-way intersection. Undoubtedly, he should have ignored the angry and crazy driver and gone his way. Instead, the neighbour driver chose to be a complete dick by sitting at the intersection.

The below picture is not the actual intersection. However, it shows the approximate distance to the stop sign when the confrontation started.

Approximate distance to the stop sign during the confrontation between two drivers.

Due to the neighbour driver’s assholery, the SUV driver responded to this escalation by laying into his horn for the entire 60 seconds. He appeared to get angrier and crazier. Witnessing this stupid mutual escalation, I expected him to leave his SUV and confront the neighbour driver. However, he decided to stay in his vehicle and was about to drive around the neighbour’s car. Upon seeing this maneuver, the neighbour driver quickly proceeded through the intersection.

Wow. This episode occurred on a residential street less than 20 feet from an intersection. Due to their stupidity, this situation could have gone sideways in a New York minute.

All for what? I would tell my students, “Both the angry and crazy driver and the stupid driver were just swinging their dicks.”

Except for the first 5 seconds, I had a front-row seat to the entire episode. As noted above, the blaring horn alerted me to the situation after I got out of my car.

From my perspective, the SUV driver displayed unwarranted aggressiveness when he encountered the neighbour backing his car out of the driveway. As a result, the neighbour driver reacted poorly. Recall that both drivers were 20 feet away from a four-way intersection. I would tell the SUV driver: “Hey dude, what’s the hurry?” There was no need for the SUV driver to be an asshat in this situation.

On the other hand, the neighbour driver reacted stupidly to the angry and crazy SUV driver. His asinine reaction made the SUV driver angrier and crazier.

Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t exactly practical self-defence.

Common sense is often far more critical than physical skills and can get you out of most situations. Here, the neighbour driver should have ignored the SUV driver and gone his way. He did not. I think it’s clear that they lack de-escalation skills and know how to avoid violence.

One driver might have a handgun or a knife. Or might have a buddy or two willing to help him out. What if a driver is an off-duty cop? Or a Joe Pesci-type psycho? You never know. Better to be calm than to blow your gasket because another driver delayed your trip by ten freaking seconds.

In short, you will have problems if you are an asshole, treat others like crap, or have a habit of making others angry and crazy. You don’t want to end up as the bad guy. All the martial arts training in the world won’t help you. I hope that both drivers learned a lesson or two after this incident. Somehow, I doubt it.

Just smile and go with the flow!

Over to you, have you observed incidents similar to what I witnessed? Please share your story!

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