"Altercation" with the driver of Honda Civic WJZ 482

**HardCharger** · August 3rd, 2010 10:31 AM

Hi All.

Just wanted to share something that happened to me this morning. I was driving to work with my girlfriend along the bridge from Alabang-Zapote Road that leads to Coastal when I noticed in my peripheral vision, a red car matching my speed immediately to my right. Since I'm driving a diesel truck, I was just expecting that the driver of the car would just speed on past me like most of the impatient drivers do.

I do not really speed up in this area as most of the people who take this route knows, you have to contend with buses, trucks, jeeps, cars, etc who are trying to super swerve to the left to get to the other side of the island to go to Cavite (?) and that there is road work being done at the bend leading to Coastal which usually serves as pick up points for buses and jeeps.

I slow down as I was avoiding a slower moving vehicle and overtake head towards the bottle neck but the red car, now identified as a red/maroon Honda Civic with plate number WJZ 482, cuts in front of me to get ahead. I honk my horn and get behind him and he gestures something at me (though I don't exactly know what he was gesturing as I couldn't see his hand but he did have his arm in the air) so something in me snapped and I just gave him the finger.

He was stopped but the traffic in front of him was already moving so I honked my horn a few time to get him to move before the bus at our right eats up the road and stops to pick up more passengers. But the bus moves and I just follow it through the mini-lake there and try to get ahead of the other cars merging at the beginning of Coastal. Since there are a lot of vehicles there fighting for lanes, I pick a fast moving one and notice the Civic following me. I look forward and had to hit the breaks as the traffic stopped a bit when other cars were cutting in front of me. The driver of the Civic must've thought that I was brake checking him and tried to maneuver around me. At this point I'm already pissed at him and try to block him. As we get to the highway, it's a straight run but I notice that instead of speeding away, he again runs beside me apparently trying to take pictures with his phone cam.

I noticed he had a little girl with him and started to back off. Even my girlfriend was telling me that I was already starting to drive like an *$$hole so I came to my sense and backed off. He was running to my 2 o'clock and not speeding away so since the road was clear, I just passed him and eventually got in line in the exact toll lane of the toll booths.

Here's where it gets interesting, his exact toll lane has already moved but he again matches my position and does not move until I do. When I was about 3 cars away from the booth, he comes down, and starts screaming as he makes his way toward me. He then knocks hard on my window demanding I either crank it down or come down. He keeps yelling that he had a kid and why I was driving like a d!ck. I just ignored him (I didn't want to look at him for fear of further provoking him) and kept moving as the line permitted and he was sticking his cam phone in front of my windshield to try and take a pic of me. I had had enough so I raised my phone to take his picture but was limited in my range of motion due to the fact that my phone was attached to my tape deck so I could listen to music (low tech lang). When he saw this, he withdrew and went back to his car.

I thought that I had lost him after the toll booths but I again caught sight of him at the Magallanes flyover as he was tailgating a bus trying to get more photos or something as his phone was still out and in one of his steering hands. I eventually lost him in Makati after Makati Ave.

To the driver of the car, I know that I'm partly at fault for engaging you and there is no excuse. I'm sorry for this and my behavior earlier this morning as it was uncalled for. I wish you safe journeys and continued health for you and your family.

Mods, I'm not sure if this is the appropriate thread for this or not so please feel free to move it if it's not.

**CVT** · August 3rd, 2010 11:04 AM

Bro.,- area ko rin iyang dinadaanan mo papasok, although my route is the other end of Zap-Alab Rd..... So, he cuts into your lane and you honk.... Maybe its a bit longer for his taste....Maybe he is hand-signalling or trying to say sorry (by raising his hand) and you gave him the birdie.... Ingat lang palagi and keep your cool... Safe driving everyone!

I see that you're from QC,- sinusundo mo ba ang GF mo sa LPC?... Whew!...

10.5K:band:

**akosiempoy** · August 3rd, 2010 11:07 AM

atleast your man enough to accept your faults.. it's really very common when approaching bottlenecks.. either ikaw ang magcut or ikaw ang icut..

i also honks my horn pag na cut ako but only pag biglaang nagswerve at di manlang nagsignal...

about dun sa brake testing, hindi nya dapat maisip yun kasi slow moving naman ang traffic.

lamig lang ng ulo lagi sa pagmamaneho bro.. makakarating din tayo sa ating destinasyon..

**foresterx** · August 3rd, 2010 11:25 AM

cool lang bro, remember there's no point in fighting some one dahil lang na cut ka niya. but to the honda driver, that was a very stupid move for you if you are reading this. i would never put my daughter in a situation like that, pano kung may baril pala ito si hardcharger at binaril ka niya bigla, pano na ang anak mo? o kaya habang nag drive ka at taking pictures of hardcharger eh nabanga ka bigla dahil attention mo ay nasa iba instead of driving properly? o kaya biglang na carnap kotse mo while your daugther is inside dahil bumaba ka sa kotse para makuha picture ni hardright? yes, hardright was wrong pero kelangan pa ba pumatol ka lalo na kasama mo ang anak mo?

sorry but as a parent that was a very stupid move for the honda driver, kahit di ikaw may kasalanan. ako kahit galit na galit ako dahil na cut ako or ginitgit ako ng mga PUV, umaabot ang galit ko to the point na talagang gusto ko na upakan yung driver pero every time that happens i think about my family, what's going to happen to them if some thing happens to me. to the honda driver, you should be more responsible since you're already a parent.

**magister** · August 3rd, 2010 11:46 AM

sorry but i find it amusing to imagine the two of you fuming mad while trying to take each other's picture. :D

anyway, be thankful no one was hurt. it really is so difficult to keep one's temper in check esp when you drive in metro manila with all the reckless drivers around.

stay safe na lang paps. pray that similar situations will not happen in the future.

**HardCharger** · August 3rd, 2010 04:20 PM

Originally Posted by CVT

Bro.,- area ko rin iyang dinadaanan mo papasok, although my route is the other end of Zap-Alab Rd..... So, he cuts into your lane and you honk.... Maybe its a bit longer for his taste....Maybe he is hand-signalling or trying to say sorry (by raising his hand) and you gave him the birdie.... Ingat lang palagi and keep your cool... Safe driving everyone!

I see that you're from QC,- sinusundo mo ba ang GF mo sa LPC?... Whew!...

10.5K:band:

Hi CVT,

Actually, I now reside in Las Piñas. Thanks for reminding me to update my profile.

As for raising his arm, I'm quite sure he wasn't saying sorry because if he was, I wouldn't have given him the bird and we would've been on our merry way, no worries.

I don't know what happened this morning, but I quickly cooled off after being told off by my girl and upon seeing the kid in the Honda. That's why I backed off but he persisted. I think he even almost hit the bus he was tailgating a couple of times on the Magallanes fly over because of still trying to take photos for whatever reason.

In any case, I was in the wrong to have taken this farther than it should have. It should have ended when he raised his arm to gesture whatever.

I will definitely keep myself in better check in the future to prevent this from happening again. I guess I just snapped for a while for some reason but that is not an excuse. Hopefully he's not so petty as to actually look for me and my truck to exact revenge on either one or even both of us. But.... You never know...

**claRkEnt** · August 3rd, 2010 05:38 PM

that area is really a problem area.. made worse by people who don't know the rules of merging alternately thus lahat nag-iinit ang ulo..

**vito corleone** · August 3rd, 2010 07:25 PM

ok ka, bro. . .you're man enough to accept your fault :clap1:

ingat lagi

**mazzipino** · August 3rd, 2010 07:52 PM

Driving on Coastal going into the city can get a bit heated, especially when people are rushing like mad to get in on time for the office.

Coastal during non-rush hours is more relaxed though.

**the_jet** · August 3rd, 2010 09:16 PM

ROAD RAGE changes the personalities of people behind the wheel.
to the TS: try counting up to ten next time before reacting, or play soothing music next time instead of hard rock or fast-beat music while driving. The beat of the music influences how you drive. Buti na lang nandun GF mo to keep you in check