Encounter With A Road Demon

Four years. That’s how long I’ve been delivering food to my customers and have never had a single driving related incident. The most serious thing that’s ever occured was accidentally dropping an empty tiffin (happened only once in 4 years) and sending the wrong tiffin to a customer’s home (again only once in 4 years). Now I can add an encounter with a road demon to that list.

On Tuesday, I drove my normal route and made my second stop. There were 2 cars parked on either side of the road so I had to double park. It was a really quick stop because I was not more than ten feet from the front gate and it was just a matter of grabbing her empty tiffin and replacing it with her filled one.

When I got back to my car less than 7 seconds later, I noticed a white Proton slowly driving through the gap between my car and one of the parked cars. Driving on, I noticed the driver of this car moving left and right. I’m always on a tight schedule. So when he pulled to the right side of the road, I overtook him. I think he didn’t take kindly to anyone overtaking him.

Reaching the next stop, I looked in my rear view mirror and got a shock when I noticed his car menacingly close to my rear. Getting down to deliver the food, the driver came down and started shouting at me. I couldn’t understand a word of what he was yelling. First thing that occured to me was that he was high on alcohol or drugs because he was slurring. I could only understand every fourth word or so. I asked him politely what the problem was and he shouted that I should know. Well I didn’t. I didn’t want to irritate him anymore by talking, so I drove off.

But he wasn’t finished yet. He tailed me to my next stop. I noticed he picked up speed and can you believe it… he hit my car and pushed me about ten feet right in front of my customer’s house. It was obvious he had to be dealt with, but I didn’t want to fight him knowing that he wasn’t in a mentally stable condition. My customer (who was also my friend) heard the commotion and came out. Then we talked to the man. My friend also noticed that he seemed high on drugs. In any case, after venting hot air for five minutes, I think the man came to his senses and started to calm down. He finally drove off, but not before telling (bragging about) where he lived.

I was a nervous wreck the whole hour and a half after that. I went to the police station to seek advice. The kind Sargeant said I had two choices :

• I could make a traffic report and they would contact the driver of the other car. The problem with this was that if it was a one-off incident and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, then I could really aggravate the situation by lodging an official report against him.
• I could go on my regular route at my regular time and see if he continued to tail me the next day. If he did, then it would mean that it wasn’t an isolated incident and maybe he had mistaken me for someone else or mistaken my car for someone else’s.

In any case, I decided to follow the police’s advice and lodge a report without stating the other man’s vehicle number. That way, if the situation persisted, I would have supporting documents. The Sargeant advised me to keep my eyes open the next few days and if I did find myself being tailed again, to immediately drive to the police station and make a (suspected) crime report.

The next few days, I dreaded going on delivery, but I made sure I was prepared. I now have an iron bar under my seat, a wooden stick on my dash and I will carry my video camera with me in case it happens again. Thankfully, Friday came and went without any more incidents, but it did leave a lasting impression. I now think twice about overtaking drivers that seem hesitant or look erratic. Better safe than sorry.

Update : In the midst of his ranting, the man bragged about how beautiful his house was and he even shouted his house and road number. Two days after the incident, I drove past that area and indeed his car was parked in front of a beautiful house. urning around to get a second look, I noticed his front bumper was black and modified with re-inforcements. I leave it to your imagination why it’s been modified…

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