WSP: Road raging driver used victim's spoiler to bash window
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NEAR MUKILTEO, Wash. -- Troopers are looking for a driver who angrily ripped off another car's spoiler then used it to bash in the car's rear window during a road rage incident Sunday evening.
"He bashed out the window and we're like, we're going to die," victim Emily Lawson said. "I thought he was going to kill us."
Lawson called 911 just before 6:30 saying that a black Nissan Cube cut her off as she and a passenger traveled south on the Mukilteo Speedway (SR-525), then drove at a very slow rate in front of them.
When Lawson motioned to the Cube driver to go faster, the Cube pulled over to the shoulder and the Lawson continued on.
"I kind of put my hands up in the air, like what are you going to do and he kind of flipped out," Lawson said.
Emily said she just kept going and she admits that she and her friend were laughing at the man's antics. But then he started swerving toward her car.
"I was irritated with him at that point so I gave him the bird and I took off," she said.
But then the Cube then followed on the shoulder as the driver yelled at the victim.
A red light forced her to stop and that's when Emily says it really got ugly.
"I see him in my rear view (mirror) getting out of his car and just running towards us so I lock my door," she said. "He runs up, jumps on the car smashes his hand on the roof then jumps off, rips the spoiler off... and smashes the back window with it."
Totally in shock, Emily said it took her a second to realize she needed to get away.
Just as the driver was about to swing at Lawson's passenger, she drove off, but the man swung and hit her roof. As Lawson was pulling away, the man threw the spoiler through the back window like a javelin, hitting her passenger. Luckily, she wasn't hurt.
"Freaking hulking on us," Lawson said. "Yeah, it was scary -- it was traumatic."
Lawson described the man as approximately 6 feet tall; 200 pounds with a muscle build and shaved head. The man left the scene as the victims continued approximately one mile south from the scene of the incident before calling 911.
Lawson says she wants the guy to pay for the damage to her car, but she didn't get his license plate, nobody stopped to help her and the state patrol says nobody else called 911. The driver remains at large.
Anyone who saw this incident or has any other information is asked to call the Washington State Patrol at (360) 654-1204.
Gee - the big guy needed a nap and his diaper changed obviously. I'm glad the girls are okay and I hope they catch the jerk.
If it's one thing we should have learned from the news lately, it's that people are on the edge around here, both on and off the roads. Â It's just not worth engaging someone, even if you're in the right. Â
Front wheel drive cars shouldn't have spoilers anyways!
@Smashquail I never understood what the point of having a spoiler was, especially the ones that are about a foot above the top of the trunk
KOMO's "More to Explore" context-selected links have selected the story from 3 weeks ago entitled "Seattle drivers among the worst in the country". While I want to give kudos to the team that developed the contextual story linking feature for this choice, I have to question how the "UFO stalking the Mars rover" fits here, unless it is suspected that the UFOs are "muscle build" bald guys flying Cubes (which could make this story actually make sense, including explaining the mere existance of the Nissan Cube).
As others said, she probably invoked this, but that's no excuse to go roid rage in your little tissue box-looking fem car. KOMO, which muscle was it that he's working on with his "muscle" build? No one wins in this situation. The chicks who flipped him off, the tiny peepee gym mirror watcher, me for reading "muscle build", and everyone else who has taken drivers ed about actually learning to not be the left-lane douchery driver.
Dash cam.
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I also run one. I had two, one forward facing and one rear. But one died.  I had the rear one because I was rear ended not too long ago and there was the whole big dispute who was at fault. Regardless, the uninsured driver got his $500 ticket and my insurance paid the claim.
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So, in short, go to Amazon.com, look up car dash cam. I bought car dashcam with night vision. Again, the model I bought with continuous recording, sound and night vision is no longer available.
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Try the Carcam with 140 degree recording view. Be sure to have a larger flash drive. I use a 32 GB. Not a cheap drive but it records a few hours of continuous recording.
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Of course, there will always be the person who asks what that thing is on your dash, window, mirror, etc and then gets offended when you say it's a camera.
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Nowadays, it's a radar detector ;-)
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There are some nuts out there. Protect yourself!
There is an app called "iCar" (which I have on Windows Phone, but obviously is on iPhone too), that makes the smartphone a dashcam. The suction mount I have allows the camera to be pointed forward. Works pretty well. The version I have appears to allow the video to be uploaded to a server.
 @georgef "that makes the smartphone a dashcam"
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That is one hell of an app, no, it's still a smartphone.
Wait, wait, let me get this right...she called 911 to say a black Nissan Cube had cut her off and then drove at a very slow rate in front of them and didn't give the license plate number to the 911 operator? Is it difficult to grab the license plate number from a slowly moving car, just in front of you while it's still light out? That and I can't believe all the other people who likely witnessed this assault couldn't get the number...GAH, I could just rip a spoiler off and spear throw it through a rear window.
We all get annoyed with certain drivers, but NOTHING justifies road rage. If you canât control your temper, get help. I hope they catch this POS. There seem to be a lot of idiots out there who are powder kegs just waiting to explode, so maybe KOMO and the other news stations could remind us what we can do to avoid being the spark that sets them off, similar to the way they do whenever there is an uptick in muggings/rapes/murders (when they remind people to be aware of their surroundings, donât walk alone down dark alleys, donât flash your iPad/smartphone, etc.). Maybe they could start with the following:
1. BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS. Whoâs coming up behind you at a high speed? Whoâs trying to change lanes? Is that car coming down the on-ramp going to merge in front of me or behind me, or should I move over? In driving school, I learned that you should check your mirrors about every 9 seconds.  An almost universal statement made by road rage victims is âI have no idea what set him offâ. If the first time you notice somebody is when they pull their car in front of you or pull a gun on you, you clearly werenât paying attention beforehand. Put down the cellphone, the cheeseburger, and the makeup kit, and pay attention to the road.
2. DRIVE FAST IN THE LEFT LANE AND SLOW IN THE RIGHT LANE. Donât tailgate in the right lane â just pass. Donât camp out in the left lane â if thereâs a big gap in front of you and a line of cars behind you, move into the right lane and let them pass.
3. CHANGE LANES CAREFULLY. Signal your turns and check your blind spot before moving. Being cut off seems to be one of the most often-cited âreasonsâ used by road rage perpetrators.
4.  DEFUSE THE SITUATION â DONâT ESCALATE IT. Learn to use the âSeinfeld waveâ â a quick wave that conveys the message of âsorry, my badâ to the other driver â if you accidentally cut somebody off (and maybe even if somebody is acting very aggressively toward you, even if you donât think youâve done anything wrong). If somebody acts aggressively, donât respond in kind (giving somebody the finger, flashing high beams, blocking somebody from passing, etc.).
I agree with all you state here - years ago when I lived in Arizona, we had a rash of some really horrible road rage incidents that involved guns and gunfire between cars. That #4 in your statement should be no eye contact with the other driver, no hand signals of any kind. Some people, especially someone in a rage, might 'see' the wave as something else.
 @CentralÂ
Some great advice there. Especially "Signal your turns" I just wanted to mention this non-scientific observation I've been making the last few years.
These days almost 100% (and I mean that) of drivers either:
- don't bother to signal (about 20%)
- begin to signal while SIMULTANEOUSLY changing lanes (about 60%), or
- begin their signal AFTER they've already entered the lane. (about 10%)
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Very very very few drivers actually turn on the signal, let it flash at least two or three times, then move over.
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I've also noticed an uptick in lane "divers"... rather than lane "changers". These are drivers who turn their steering wheels very suddenly and "bolt" into the adjoining lane in a very short distance, at speed. These types almost universally don't bother to signal, of course.
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These are a few driving mistakes that can easily be "the straw that broke the road-rager's back", I'm just sayin'....
One observation.
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It appears those in sports cars and luxury cars (Mercedes, Lexus, even Caddy's, etc) regularly do not signal turns.
 @HonkeyCat Really? Seems to me it's guys in huge pickup trucks that have the broken turn signal stalk.Â
Central. I agree with you 100%.
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Unfortunately, the offenders probably don't read the paper or this post.
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Unless you put this as a PSA on MTV or other channel I believe most people won't see it.
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Also, I don't see a whole lot of PSA's, published, on billboards, reader boards, etc, about the cellphone laws.  There are a whole lot of out of state cars (not to mention our own residents) that live on the phone while driving. Whether texting or yaking.Â
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Ok, I'm done for now. Peace out. Cheers
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@HonkeyCat
I was thinking they could include the "road rage avoidance tips" in their TV news coverage when they report any story like this. (This story has been on KOMO and KING TV news.)
I must confess. I used to be a hot head behind the wheel. Now, I pretty much keep my eyes on the road, especially in traffic. Sure, I occassionally do the sideway glance at the person who zips through traffic without signaling only to end up in the same position, or the dork that insists on getting over to the left lane and driving exactly the speedlimit causing people to pass him on the right, or the driver with more than one person in the car in the left lane holding up traffic when the carpool lane to his/her left is wide open, so on and so on.
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I agree, drive defensively. Chill out. Ignore the jack arse flipping your the bird, if you're getting brake checked, evade -
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I love my satelite radio and just ignore lots of arsewholes on the road.
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Driving a Ford Escort with a spoiler? She was asking for it.
Even if the driver who had their windows smashed was doing something that aggravated another, it by no means excuses some nut to smash her window.
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I would think she could have legally shot the POS dead in his tracks if she had a concealed weapon permit.Â
lol. what a tough, "muscle build" guy! i wonder if he told all his Bros about the two chicks he tried to beat up? what a story he'll make it out to be, i'm sure......"bro, bro, check it out - these two effin' huge dudes start effin wit me, and you know me bro, i ain't down wit that...." blah bl;ah blah.
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wuss.
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 @Quackula not much of a fast lane on 405 to mukilteo but i like your style!
I can't believe you clowns with the "Yeah, but she probably started it" attitude. It doesn't matter, if you can't act like an adult out there you don't need to be driving.Â
 @Insomniac Dreams By her own admission she wasn't acting like an adult either. You are playing with fire if you taunt another driver, especially when it's already apparent that he is unbalanced. She's lucky he didn't walk up and shoot them both.
 @Petwlkr Don't you get what I am saying? Acting like an adult means IGNORE ANY TAUNTING and if the other driver is DRIVING dangerously, get the license number if you can and call 911. Â
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 And the "She's lucky she didn't get shot" would apply double to him, since there were two people in her car.Â
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@Insomniac Dreams @Petwlkr
Yes, we get what youâre saying. Nothing that this woman did can justify this man becoming physically violent with her. Nobody here is arguing that. What they ARE saying is that this is not an either/or situation. Just because this guy is a total POS, it doesnât mean that she is lily white and pure.
Seriously, finding a Nissan Cube driving shaved head steroids raging muscle boy - not going to be all that hard.
Two people in the vehicle, plenty of time (according to the story) to catch the plate number, even a partial would have helped, and neither person was able to get a plate number?
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Fail!
 @HonkeyCat They were probably very scared and too upset to do so.
 @HonkeyCat I was in that situation where someone threatened me and I was more looking for a safe way to drive out and it just didn't dawn on me to get the plate #. I've since invested in a $60 dash cam.
 @Xirxious  @HonkeyCat i wanna know too! send me an email!
 @Xirxious Which one did you get and how do you like it? I've been looking for one.
Crazy. I hope they find the POS!!!! Hopefully some traffic cameras caught the guy on film. Would love to see this scum prosecuted.Â
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I wonder if you could legally have shot this guy out of the fear for your life if you had a concealed weapon permit. There are some seriously deranged people on our roads full of rage.Â
If I owned a Cube, I would be pretty angry too, although not angry enough to take it out on that lady.
Those cars are ugly and hurt my eyes to look at.
Always get the license plate. Always.
I would be there is more to it then the bimbo is willing to tell
If anything, it has improved the appearance of the Escort dramatically.
Since I doubt he donned gloves before ripping the spoiler off, perhaps they will be able to life prints from it. I would bet someone who is this violent has some sort of police record - it's just a matter of identifying them.
@LocalLady They cant be bothered with dusting, they dont even do that in breaking and entering.
I wonder why not?
I had a thought about that later - budget cuts? maybe they had to fire all the CSI's? .... lazy....  heh heh
 @Elaine2 Good question.
There are a LOT of violent nutcases out there. This is yet another good reason for ladies to get their Concealed Carry permits....
Guaranteed the female driver did something very stupid to start this. Not saying the guy is justified, but we've all been there at some point.Â
and we ALLLLLLL do stupid things, so let's get that straight as well. There is NO excuse for his behaving this way. He is a danger to society. Arrest the jerk.
 @caphillkid Nice assumption. I'm actually surprised you said that. I totally disagree, by the way. It's more likely that the rager is a violent jerk bully, was out looking for trouble, and these two just happened to be the ones he "picked". It could just as easily have been anyone... even YOU.
Hey KOMO, what is a "muscle build?"Â
Can you say roid rage.
 @caphillkid It's similar to a "muscular build", but only refers to just one muscle, so small that he has to pick on females.
Race of perp? 6ft tall and 200lbs? Very unique.
 @rainbowsandunicorns KING5 describes him as white with short brown hair.