srullens
08-31-2008, 08:39 AM
This happened not to far from where I live.
I had one experience I had was when someone passed me in driving over 100+mph on the shoulder don't know why there was no one in the other lane?
Teen student victim of road rage attacker
Girl, 17, chased across state line, punched and held at knifepoint
• The News Journal • August 27, 2008
A 17-year-old Pennsylvania girl left her Chadds Ford home shortly before 3 p.m. Monday to practice with her team at a Delaware high school.
Instead of meeting her teammates, the teen encountered an angry motorist who followed her for miles along winding roads from Chester County to near Centreville in what state police describe as an extreme case of road rage.
Before it was over, the teen was punched in the face and had a knife held to her throat. The attacker also broke off her car key in the ignition.
"It terrified her," the girl's mother said in an interview. "It was very intimidating."
"We have road rage incidents on a regular basis, but seldom do they rise to the level that this one did of brandishing a weapon and harming a motorist," said Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh, a state police spokesman.
The girl's mother said the driver followed her daughter, who has been driving for about a year, from U.S. 1 in Pennsylvania to Del. 100.
She declined to be identified or provide personal details about her daughter -- such as what type of team she was to practice with -- because the attacker was still at large.
"She was speeding to get out of his way," she said. "When she came to a four-way stop on [Del.] 100, he passed her over the double yellow line and pulled the pickup truck in front of her car."
Then he got out and walked back to the teenager's car.
The girl rolled her window down about 5 inches to speak to him.
"He said, 'You tried to kill me,' " her mother said. "And he pushed his way into the car. She didn't see that he had a knife."
The teen's mother said the driver cursed at her daughter and said he wanted the girl's car keys.
When the teen refused, he punched her in the face, Whitmarsh said.
"He was waving the knife in her face and he punched her in the face before he put the knife to her throat," the victim's mother said. "Then he ripped the key in the ignition in half and fled with the keys."
By that time, another motorist pulled up behind the teenager's car at Center Meeting Road and Montchanin Road east of Centreville and police were called.
"Other drivers at the scene tried to chase him," the victim's mother said.
The terms aggressive driving and road rage are often interchanged, but there's an important difference between the two, experts said.
Aggressive driving, a traffic offense, consists of speeding, tailgating and abrupt lane changes.
Road rage is uncontrolled anger that results in violence or threatened violence on the road, and it is a criminal offense, said Ella Voluck, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.
According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, there are about 1,200 incidents of road rage-related deaths a year in the United States.
Whitmarsh said police do not keep specific statistics on road rage.
"We capture it as disorderly conduct, assault, threat of bodily harm or as traffic violations," he said.
The victim's parents hope the public recognizes the man involved in Monday's incident and alerts state police.
"We're hoping that someone will come forward with information so this person can be apprehended," the girl's mother said.
Police are searching for the suspect, who is described as a short, gray-haired man with a buzz cut driving a blue 2-door pickup. He was dressed in an orange button-down, short-sleeve shirt.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/garage/images/his2336.png
I had one experience I had was when someone passed me in driving over 100+mph on the shoulder don't know why there was no one in the other lane?
Teen student victim of road rage attacker
Girl, 17, chased across state line, punched and held at knifepoint
• The News Journal • August 27, 2008
A 17-year-old Pennsylvania girl left her Chadds Ford home shortly before 3 p.m. Monday to practice with her team at a Delaware high school.
Instead of meeting her teammates, the teen encountered an angry motorist who followed her for miles along winding roads from Chester County to near Centreville in what state police describe as an extreme case of road rage.
Before it was over, the teen was punched in the face and had a knife held to her throat. The attacker also broke off her car key in the ignition.
"It terrified her," the girl's mother said in an interview. "It was very intimidating."
"We have road rage incidents on a regular basis, but seldom do they rise to the level that this one did of brandishing a weapon and harming a motorist," said Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh, a state police spokesman.
The girl's mother said the driver followed her daughter, who has been driving for about a year, from U.S. 1 in Pennsylvania to Del. 100.
She declined to be identified or provide personal details about her daughter -- such as what type of team she was to practice with -- because the attacker was still at large.
"She was speeding to get out of his way," she said. "When she came to a four-way stop on [Del.] 100, he passed her over the double yellow line and pulled the pickup truck in front of her car."
Then he got out and walked back to the teenager's car.
The girl rolled her window down about 5 inches to speak to him.
"He said, 'You tried to kill me,' " her mother said. "And he pushed his way into the car. She didn't see that he had a knife."
The teen's mother said the driver cursed at her daughter and said he wanted the girl's car keys.
When the teen refused, he punched her in the face, Whitmarsh said.
"He was waving the knife in her face and he punched her in the face before he put the knife to her throat," the victim's mother said. "Then he ripped the key in the ignition in half and fled with the keys."
By that time, another motorist pulled up behind the teenager's car at Center Meeting Road and Montchanin Road east of Centreville and police were called.
"Other drivers at the scene tried to chase him," the victim's mother said.
The terms aggressive driving and road rage are often interchanged, but there's an important difference between the two, experts said.
Aggressive driving, a traffic offense, consists of speeding, tailgating and abrupt lane changes.
Road rage is uncontrolled anger that results in violence or threatened violence on the road, and it is a criminal offense, said Ella Voluck, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.
According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, there are about 1,200 incidents of road rage-related deaths a year in the United States.
Whitmarsh said police do not keep specific statistics on road rage.
"We capture it as disorderly conduct, assault, threat of bodily harm or as traffic violations," he said.
The victim's parents hope the public recognizes the man involved in Monday's incident and alerts state police.
"We're hoping that someone will come forward with information so this person can be apprehended," the girl's mother said.
Police are searching for the suspect, who is described as a short, gray-haired man with a buzz cut driving a blue 2-door pickup. He was dressed in an orange button-down, short-sleeve shirt.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/garage/images/his2336.png