Road Rage - Resolved
About a month ago I was involved in a road rage incident. It was a car versus bike situation, and I was on the bike. I was waiting for a traffic light to change so I could go forward, the motorist was behind me waiting to turn right. He honked, cussed at me, revved his engine and then intentionally hit my rear fender (not very hard). Perhaps he felt it was a turn-only lane, although it is not.
I reported this to the police non-emergency line, including the license plate and driver description. They would not contact the registered owner. I filed a written complaint to the Minneapolis Police department, they repeated that the Minneapolis Police Department would not contact the registered owner because that would be presumptive and would place blame based on just my side of the story. They did refer me to an unexpected resource: the City Attorney.
After a couple of calls and emails, the City Attorney did call the registered owner and spoke to him in real time. The motorist said he wanted to call back. He then consulted with his own attorney and left a voice mail message with the city indicating that he has been advised not to provide a statement.
I am satisfied with the outcome. Maybe (?) he will think twice before road-raging again.
I also learned that the Minneapolis Police, at least in the 2nd Precinct, have no interest in pursuing a case like this.
Kudos to the City Attorney. I wouldn't have even thought to pursue that avenue to get something done in this case.
I reported this to the police non-emergency line, including the license plate and driver description. They would not contact the registered owner. I filed a written complaint to the Minneapolis Police department, they repeated that the Minneapolis Police Department would not contact the registered owner because that would be presumptive and would place blame based on just my side of the story. They did refer me to an unexpected resource: the City Attorney.
After a couple of calls and emails, the City Attorney did call the registered owner and spoke to him in real time. The motorist said he wanted to call back. He then consulted with his own attorney and left a voice mail message with the city indicating that he has been advised not to provide a statement.
I am satisfied with the outcome. Maybe (?) he will think twice before road-raging again.
I also learned that the Minneapolis Police, at least in the 2nd Precinct, have no interest in pursuing a case like this.
Kudos to the City Attorney. I wouldn't have even thought to pursue that avenue to get something done in this case.
posted by Jim K at 1:23 PM
2 Comments:
I'll bet if you had been driving your car and received a friendly little tap the police would have been willing to make a call. That sucks.
You're so civilized. I would have just pulled him out through the window. Hey, I was lucky enough to see Bob, Rex and Kay recently.
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