I remember once sitting next to an Australian dude and we talked almost the whole flight, from Atlanta to LAX. The biggest takeaway, which I think about often, was something he told me about where he was living in Mexico. He said that you never honk the horn or blink the lights at someone driving erratically. When I asked why, he said that it could be a gang member who has little regard for human life. Well, something like this is happening in the U.S.A. too, and it’s not just gang members.

Take for example, this video, captured in Encinitas, California just a few days ago. It’s of a Tesla driver honking the horn at a pickup truck and the driver pulled out a gun. It wasn’t clear if the pickup driver was just trying to scare the Tesla driver but he wasn’t taking any chances so he sped away.

Last year, a six-year-old was killed because his mother stuck out her middle finger when she was cut off on the 55 Freeway in Orange County. It’s such a disturbing story I can’t even write about it; here’s the link.

Sadly there are dozens, if not, hundreds of examples of road rage all around the United States, including one of a young father carrying a cake into a Chuckee Cheese in Texas. According to ABC News: “Police said the suspect drove the wrong way down a row of parking spaces and almost hit the victim. The video then shows the two exchange words. Moments later, a witness told police they heard three gunshots.” It’s insane someone would shoot someone for yelling or honking the horn.

Something similar happened to me about four years ago when I was driving with my wife and baby. Some dude came flying up behind me, zigzagging through traffic. I blinked my lights and about a half a mile down the road, wouldn’t you know it, we were stopped at the same stop light. The guy was losing his sh*t, I mean, losing it. Like yelling at me and banging his steering wheel. If it hadn’t been for cars coming between us and the light turning green so I could take a quick right, things might’ve ended differently.

So the point is that it’s better to just keep your mouth shut, don’t honk or blink your lights because these days, you just don’t know who’s carrying a gun.

9 Comments On "Don't Do This When You're Driving Because It's Just Not Worth It"
  1. FRANCES BOJORQUEZ|

    Something similar happened to me a few years ago in Los Angeles. I was behind a small truck with 3 men inside the cab at a signaled left turn. The light turned green for the left lane to proceed and they didn’t move so I “tapped” my horn. That didn’t sit well with the driver and they proceeded to chase this grandma throughout my neighborhood. I got on the freeway and made a dangerous but evasive exit and got away from those butt heads.

    Never again will I tap my horn or alert a car that their head lights are off at night by blinking my high beams. These are tips taught by my dad years ago. Unfortunately, times have changed.

  2. Larry|

    Yeah, I remember you telling that story a couple of years ago and wondering what was wrong with you then. Anyways, glad that you are ok… and good words of wisdom to, literally, live by.

    Also, do you have a full rss feed available? Ia transitioning the blogs that I am going to read over to feedly and deleting the ones that I can’t get to load, so I was wondering if you can point me in the right direction please?

    1. Johnny Jet|
  3. Larry|

    It doesn’t seem to open the full article in feedly. Do you have another feed that opens the full article so that it can be read entirely inside of the feedly app? Thank you again.

  4. Marlin Yoder|

    Even without the threat of violence, most of things mentioned to not do really don’t need to be done anyhow. Blinking lights, honking because of being annoyed, giving the finger, what are we hoping to accomplish with stupid stuff like that anyhow?

  5. Jim|

    A couple of years ago, I was driving into work in my Audi convertible, I was behind a Crown Vic, two passengers in the front, 3 in the back, and they decided to stop in the middle of the road, no stop sign, no signal lights, they just stopped. I beeped. They motioned for me to pass, I passed, and they accelerated, chasing me. They could not keep up, so I felt I was in the clear. Until the next red light. A two lane road, no shoulders, with oncoming traffic, and I was stuck behind a line of cars waiting for the light to change, and here they come, in the on-coming lane, towards oncoming traffic. They pulled up next to me, face tattoos, bald heads, the passenger says, “do you have a problem?” I said, “yeah there was no reason to stop back there, not sure what you were doing”. The passenger replied, “lets talk about it”. Meanwhile, the light had turned green, I had the chance to take off, and got out of there. Were there guns pointed at me from the passengers in the back seat? Most likely. I was very fortunate to get out of there. Those people were psychotic.

  6. Larry|

    Still can’t get the full rss feed to work in feedly. Any help? Trying to fix the last couple sites that I routinely check.

    1. Johnny Jet|

      Still working on it

  7. Raconteur|

    Over 30 years ago a colleague was murdered in a road rage incident on the 56 freeway in San Diego. Both cars stopped on the shoulder. My colleague walked up to the other car and was shot dead. No one was ever arrested. Stay calm and never get out of your vehicle.

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