Had a bit of an incident on the M50 yesterday. I overtake a car and then am stuck right behind a slow moving tow truck in the fast lane and a car in the left lane. As I’m waiting for an opportunity to move back into left lane a blue van behind me comes within 4 feet of the back of my car and eventually backs off. I get into left lane, the tow truck is now a good bit ahead (he must have sped up a bit) still chugging along in fast lane. I’m coming up behind a slow black micra doing about 70ks and so want to overtake. Check my mirrors and shoulder and am pretty sure I am clear to get in ahead of the blue van which had not overtaken me but had stayed in overtaking lane. I indicate and pull out and as I am moving across I am 100% convinced that the blue van actually accelerated. I cannot go back into left lane at this stage as I will hit the black micra, blue van is beeping but most definitely did not slow down. I make it in in front of him and take my foot of the accelerator and then ease onto the breaks – if I am getting hit I don’t want it to be at top speed. I hit my panic lights and blue van eventually backs off.
I take the next exit about 4 minutes later and am in a tailback in the left lane in the off ramp coming up to the roundabout. Suddenly the door of my car is flung open and there is this very aggressive eastern European guy shouting abuse at me in broken English. I am in total shock and feeling pretty vulnerable with this fella having me cornered. I look back and can see his van is parked 15 yards behind mine and there is a grey car which cant get passed his van as his door is open. He’s shouting at me and threatening me so I let a roar at him to get away from my car and tell him to call the cops if he has a problem but is not entitled to attack me in this manner, he keeps shouting and tell him I am calling the police, he then screams something at me and shapes up and throws a dummy punch which I kind of flinch from and pick up my phone. He runs back to his van. I actually ended up hitting the wrong number but it would have looked like I was calling the police. Grey car and then his van overtake me in right lane and grey car driver gets out and talks to van driver and hands him a piece of paper. Grey car passenger is staring at me and shaking her head – all this leads me to think grey car driver and passenger felt it was all my fault. I was fairly shook up about the whole thing and drove off without redialling to get the gardai.
It is possible that I may have been in the wrong on the M50, though I think his actions compounded the danger, but the guy was totally out of line to attack me like that. Assault is not only the act of hitting someone it also includes the act of making them feel like they are about to be hit and he surely did that. His fingerprints will be on my car door and handle and I will threaten to press charges for assault if I hear anymore about it.
If he called the gardai himself what would happen – can I expect to be contacted by the gardai and if so what could happen?
I take the next exit about 4 minutes later and am in a tailback in the left lane in the off ramp coming up to the roundabout. Suddenly the door of my car is flung open and there is this very aggressive eastern European guy shouting abuse at me in broken English. I am in total shock and feeling pretty vulnerable with this fella having me cornered. I look back and can see his van is parked 15 yards behind mine and there is a grey car which cant get passed his van as his door is open. He’s shouting at me and threatening me so I let a roar at him to get away from my car and tell him to call the cops if he has a problem but is not entitled to attack me in this manner, he keeps shouting and tell him I am calling the police, he then screams something at me and shapes up and throws a dummy punch which I kind of flinch from and pick up my phone. He runs back to his van. I actually ended up hitting the wrong number but it would have looked like I was calling the police. Grey car and then his van overtake me in right lane and grey car driver gets out and talks to van driver and hands him a piece of paper. Grey car passenger is staring at me and shaking her head – all this leads me to think grey car driver and passenger felt it was all my fault. I was fairly shook up about the whole thing and drove off without redialling to get the gardai.
It is possible that I may have been in the wrong on the M50, though I think his actions compounded the danger, but the guy was totally out of line to attack me like that. Assault is not only the act of hitting someone it also includes the act of making them feel like they are about to be hit and he surely did that. His fingerprints will be on my car door and handle and I will threaten to press charges for assault if I hear anymore about it.
If he called the gardai himself what would happen – can I expect to be contacted by the gardai and if so what could happen?