This was a very real situation and I would appreciate any input from those who could visualize themselves in this situation, bearing in mind the practical
limitations at the time.
Wasn't going to post this but recent Remote Area comms posts made me think it has relevance, as despite this happening in surburan
Melbourne I can tell you that you feel very alone at the time, you are under pressure and the outcome depends on how you use what you have at the time.
I had just picked up a work of art, a new HF aerial made with care by retired
Melbourne amateurs and the only multi-tap I know of that has taps for both VKS-737 and amateur radio.
I'm in the car, 30km from
home and its just on dusk.
I'm now on a multi-lane road and do a right hand turn, seconds later a horn blasts and lights flash behind me.
I must have cut someone off, but I couldn't see anything.
A few seconds later a dark Falcon
sedan moves to my passenger side and someone is shouting and waving their arms violently.
A few more seconds and the car is in front of me putting its brakes on and appears to be trying to get me to pull over.
The car in front slows down but does not stop. I take no action at all.
We are now about 1km from the incident start and travelling up towards a
Y junction. The car in front speeds up and I think, he has vent his anger and proceeded on.
But no, the car stops in no man's land at
the junction.
Instantly I note that the car is positioned to go either way and could be waiting for me.
I go left, and note the car pulls out and slots in behind me.
I am now wide awake and take a random turn into a little side street and sure enough the car follows.
I don't know the area and its now dark, and the following car has dark tint.
I was not able to see into the car and have no knowledge of the occupant(s) but something is clearly on and the actions at the
Y junction give me one clear message - this driver had played these games before.
First reaction -> Was to drive such that you do not get boxed in, so I switch GPS modes to North up with the car position centre screen and to plan view - this gives best overall image of the surrounding street layout in an attempt to avoid dead ends in this unfamilar enviroment.
Second reaction -> drive slow and steady obeying all rules.
My mind wandered to an incident reported to me by a 21 year old who had a car close up on him he believed was acting strangely at midnight - he speed up to try and get away - the Blue lights began flashing and he lost his car.
The driver following me had carried on somewhat, but so far hadn't got into the full rage "run you off the road mode", this could have been consistent with being setup.
15 minutes later - its pitch black now, I have been followed winding thru back streets for several km's and I tried to analyse the situation.
The only reason to keep this up would be to try and follow me
home or to set up a confrontation.
If their had been a genuine issue, I felt that the driver had more than ample time to take my number, phone in a complaint and break off.
Recent news items about serious road rage assaults meant there was no way I'd stop without support.
I vaguely new of a
police station in the area and over the next 10 minutes slowly worked my way towards it, closely followed all the way.
In the few seconds I had as I approached it, it looked badly lighted and probably wasn't manned so I decided to drive past it.
Despite driving right past the
police station, which should have indicated my intentions, the following car was still doggedly on my tail.
I switched to plan "B", which was to use my natural advantage and began heading towards a 4wd track despite it being 35km away - here I would loose the tailer without myself engaging in any questionable or possibly dangerous activity to escape.
We maintain a wide ranging 27mhz and UHF cb radio link and I was now overdue.
A radio call came from
home asking where I was.
This contact enabled me to explain the situation and try a switch to plan "C".
I had an acquaintance a few km from the
police station and my contact got onto this ex-policeman and radio arrangements were quickly made for me to drive near to his place where I would have known support.
All the while I am still analysing the traffic, driving unfamilar streets, watching the car behind and attempting to avoid being trapped.
I'm more than 30 mins into this now, and this guy must have a serious issue, he must have known I wasn't going to lead him
home by now, yet he maintained the threat.
What was his purpose!
Approaching the acquaintances's place there is a long dark street, as I headed down it, still only doing only 40kmh the car behind me closed up and moved into a sort of hunting mode.
It began weaving side to side causing its headlights to move back and
forth across me.
I don't intimidate easily, stuck to my plan and pulled up just past a "T"
junction
where I was expected. This would cause anyone following behind to park across the "T" and under a street light.
I stopped and a few seconds later so did the car following.
It was confrontation time.
The bushes on the road edge moved and my acquaintance stepped out along with his huge german sheppards.
The dogs new me, I got out of the car and they rushed over and enthusiastically greeted me, in full view of the other car.
We all turned and walked towards the dark falcon.
In this instant the whole dynamics of a potentially ugly situation changed.
I now held the cards, but still had no idea what we were up against.
As we approached the driver appeared to lock the doors and grab a Blackberry type phone - perhaps he was now calling for backup ?
We took no aggressive action and simply verified the car details.
I now had time to call the
police, which I did and we walked away.
10 minutes later the
police arrived and took our details, but the car had gone and we were told it was a company car so they could not contact the driver and the incident would be followed up to-morrow.
My actions in setting up a stopping point where I did meant that I had both a valid reason for being there, witnesses to support the intimidation, and it would not be a "He said, She said" situation.
A week later, we had not heard back from the
police and a visit revealed that the incident hadn't been followed up, it was apparently then followed up and the other driver was given a hard time.
I was informed that the whole stituation amounted to "Assault" and that my story was
well supported.
No further action was taken.