[aclivity]

I was going to add this to the end of the Motorway driving thread but as it was A) not on the motorway and B) the offender was not actually driving I thought it warranted a thread of it's own.

I was attacked this morning. Not technically me, my car took all the damage (several hundred pounds worth) but it shook me up.

I left home as usual at 7:00 am, and I was less than 500 yards from home when I saw a couple of lads ('scrotes') crossing the road. I didn't speed up as usual, thinking that if I eased on the acceleration on that bit of the road, by the time I got there they would have reached the other side.

Well, as I approached I realised that the two were not crossing the road as quickly as I expected. I slowed to a halt only to have one of them - the shaven headed one - run at my car, punch both fists down onto the bonnet and scream something about me trying to run him over. His mate pulled him off to the side and I drove forward. It looked (in the rear view mirror) that he had calmed down so I reversed back and opened my window to ask if he was OK (concerned that I actually might have hit him). He tried to pull the window down, screamed at me some more; his mate was saying "just go, he's drunk". As the window had foxed him (I'm not saying he was thick but the door wasn't locked) he decided to kick my car, stoving in the front wing.

I then drove off, round the corner and called the police.

Now here's where I have to say the Hertfordshire police are wonderful. Withint a few minutes of me calling the police I heard sirens, and (I found out later) the lowlife scum was caught and arrested. It turned out that he had been quite active all morning, as he had kicked several cars on the estate in his apparent rage. I was the 'lucky' one chosen for attention despite the fact that I was both in the car and moving.

Within 90 minutes I had been visited by a police officer and made my statement, I identified the offender and he was locked up for the rest of the day to sober up.

But the bad parts:
- The quote for repairing my bodywork is somewhere around £500 (it was a LOT of damage, the repairers didn't believe it was done by a foot and not another car at high speed).
- I have had, up to now, 9 (NINE) years no claims. Luckily I have protected no claims bonus, but if I need to make another claim within 3 years I will lose that protection and will be busted back to 6 years. Unless of course they can get the money back off the guy who caused the damage, but the judgement of the officer, the insurance company and the assigned DS, the chance of this guy paying up is slim.
- I have an excess of £300 on my insurance, so not only do I lose some of my no claims protection, I'm also out of pocket.

Anyway, the t*sser sobered up this evening and claimed - amazingly - that he "couldn't remember" anything that happened this morning. He'll be in court in a couple of days, I don't know what charges will be; I think the DS on the 'phone mentioned 'wilfull damage'. He may decide to change his plea to guilty when he appears in court, although part of me hopes he tries to get out of it, perhaps I just want my day in court?

I don't know why I'm posting this, I know that I've only just calmed down. I kept going over what I 'should' have done - part of me wishes I'd run the scum over, or actually got out the car and taken him on (I'd have smacked him over the head with my laptop!). Whatever, I'm sure asking him if he was OK wasn't a good move.

So, morals of this story -
Road rage isn't limited to drivers.
Christian charity / concern for fellow man may not always be a good idea.
In hindsight, my wife has pointed out that this sort of encounter is sometimes seen in the paper as "father of 2 stabbed by youth". Sobering thought.