Dodge Journey - road rage overtake on grassy median
Driving along the access road of I-35 in Austin, TX, I needed to merge into the left lane so I could then get onto the highway. After waiting for a white Honda to pass me, I signaled and began merging over. Behind me, a driver in a gray Dodge Journey sped up to prevent my merge, then proceeded to throw a little hissy fit that I had gotten in front of him.
At the next merge point, I proceeded to signal and was 90% done merging when the Dodge Journey asshole flys past me on the grassy median, and almost hits the white Honda while trying to assert his dominance. The way it sounded inside, I was sure he had scraped along the drivers side of my car.
Once we stopped I got out and talked to him, admittedly without looking at my car first. He insisted he'd done nothing wrong and had been in front of me the whole time. He insisted he didn't touch my car, and he refused to give any information or insurance. At that point the light turned green and he booked it for the highway. I went back to my car and noticed that the only thing immediately noticeable was that the drivers side mirror had been folded in, and that there was a dark gray scratch on the mirror cap. I fixed the mirror and continued onto the highway, with my fiancé in the passenger seat on the phone with 311 to file a report.
When we got to our destination I inspected the car and couldn't find any other damage.
APD did eventually call me back, but I decided not to pursue further because I figured that since he was driving a Dodge Journey with paper tags, (1) the car might be stolen, (2) if not stolen, he probably doesn't have insurance, and (3) if he bought a 2019 Dodge Journey in May/June of 2022, that means he (A) paid too much for it, (B) probably has bad credit, and (C), doesn't make good life choices, as evidenced by his aggressive driving, refusal to exchange information, and the fact that he was smoking in, presumably, a new-to-him car.
Long story short, it wasn't worth my time.
