Scariest thing ever - I nearly got run off the road

I haven't yet mentioned this, in fact on some levels I think I have been suppressing the memory of this experience because it is one of the scariest things that has EVER happened to me, plus I was so tired at the time, my brain wasn't really functioning anyway...

On Sunday morning after helping my friend as a doula during the birth of her baby, and after seeing 3 babies born in 24 hours and with 1 hour of sleep...

I left my friend at the hospital and was driving home at 8:30am, in the pouring rain and wreckage that was left after the storm of Saturday night. The idea was to go home and straight to bed.

Another friend sms'ed wishing us all luck for the birth. She is closer to the new mom than I am - I only know the mom through this friend. So I called her to tell her the news, and we agreed that I'd pop in for a coffee and chat on the way home, as I wanted to talk about it and wasn't quite ready for sleep.

We had coffee etc and at 10am I start driving home. Now more tired because the adrenaline rush had subsided... I was driving carefully because the weather was still bad and there were huge puddles everywhere.

I pull onto the M5 on ramp and a big Pick 'n Pay truck was in the way and inching along. I check the other lane and there are cars crawling though a major puddle to get into that lane, so I indicated and changed lanes and start trying to pick up speed to over take the truck. With that a shiney black BMW with tinted windows and rims and all the trimmings (real ganster mobile) flies through the puddle and past everyone and storms up behind me and hoots and flashes brights at me and basically runs into the back of me.


I was thinking 'wtf dude? Relax.' I generally avoid conflict and was happy to get past the truck and move out of his way, but I had to pass the truck first. But this guy did not let up, and clearly he thinks he owns the road and has sole right to use it... Then I did an admittedly silly and out of character thing. I gave him the finger. Cos now I was thinking 'F-you, you don't own the road, piss off. '

So I pass the truck, move over and pull into the slow lane. End of story....

NOT!!!!

This F-ing prick storms past me and pulls in front of me and brakes. HARD. I'm thinking, 'ok whatever, get it out of your system, so I slowed down accordingly.' Thinking he;s a bit crazy because this was not the weather to mess around in. Then he decided he wasn't done yet and braked HARD again and didn't stop. I had to slam on brakes - with slight skidding and he STOPPED right in front of me.

My first though was that we were going to be hit - we were stopped on the M5 at 10am in the pouring rain... than I was thinking OMG this guy is going to get out and kill me! Beat me up or shoot me or something.

I was quite panicked but I checked that fast lane and it was clear so I quickly pulled of and changed lanes and went... I pulled back into the slow lane and was so shaken I just drove.

This guy storms off after me, and drives right next to me, almost touching my car. I really thought I was going to die. I didn't dare look at him (but I know he had a passenger). I was convinced he was going to ram into me, and I wondering how I was going to control the car in the rain and was very worried that someone else was going to hit us.

Then he pulled sharply infront of me again, nearly colliding with me and braked hard again and started stopping again... (I am actually starting to shake again just remebering this).

At this point I was in flight or flight mode and was considering driving off the road to get away. I started dialling 10111 in some kind of attempt to save my life.

All in all I over took him to get away twice and he braked in front of me 3 times.

I don't know what the other people around us were thinking - gang war???
No one hooted or helped, but honestly if I saw that I would have stayed as far away as possible.

I don't know if he was drunk or what but he was extremely aggressive and dangerous.

After the third time he zoomed off at about 180km/h and took the next off ramp.

I got through to 10111 and explained what was going on, the operator was quite nice and it helped to be able to tell someone what was going on, but there was nothing she could do. I just told her I was being run off the road and was desperately trying to stay alive, but this guy was hell bent on endangering all of us.

I wanted to get his car registration, but there was no way I was going near him again, so I carried on home.

Bloody hell, that is like the first and last time I give someone the finger in traffic. OMG!

I don't think I have ever been so scared, and had the idiot known how tired I was, and that the chances of me not being able to react fast were quite high, he might have been more careful! Thank god for adrenaline!