Road Rage -- Something for the Young -- Part #2

As you may remember from Part #1, the guy had ridden unsafely and been told off (either audibly or not) by me at the point shown in the upper, far-right blue rectangle of the photo. Then he hit or kicked our car in the green rectangle to the left. The road continues downhill to the intersection in the yellow rectangle, then goes back uphill to the red rectangle on the left.

I was enraged. It was at this point that Maryann, the calmer/smarter of our couple, said something like, "Let it go." Somewhere between the yellow and red rectangles I called 9-1-1, intending to have him stopped by the cops for hitting-or-kicking our vehicle, but they didn't answer immediately, so I hung up.

[Click on the image for a bigger version]

They called back a few moments later, and I said I had reconsidered filing a complaint and decided not to, spoke with the operator for a total of 47 seconds, then hung up. By this point, I had convinced Maryann to pull around the corner and stop the car. As I sat there, I realized the bicyclists would be going much slower up the incline we had just driven. In fact, they would be coming up the hill in a minute or so.

It became my intention to stop the guy and make a Citizens' Arrest. He had no right to escalate from whatever I had said to physically striking my car.

Now as you may know from reading these posts, I'm wearing a special boot on my left foot after four surgeries on it. I may or may not have talked previously about the lack of balance caused by diabetic neuropathy or being considerably overweight from not being able to walk as far as one block around the house until recently -- not for more than 2 years. The adhesive capsulitis ("frozen shoulder syndrome") makes it difficult to move my arms. Suffice it to say, I am old, fat, semi-crippled and fall over easily.

Despite those considerable physical limitations, I intended to confront the guy who had attacked our car. I wanted to express my outrage, to demand an apology, and seek the intervention of law enforcement if I didn't get it.

Things didn't work out as I had planned.

I may talk more about what occurred next on another day.