I was a victim of some major road rage against bikes and nearly killed in El Cajon California. The driver of a large black Ford F150 Platinum Edition truck doesn’t like bikes. At an intersection he came around me and enter the bike lane from my right side, while screaming profanities at me. He drove in the bike lane and intentinally pushed me into morning traffic. Thankfully, I was pedaling my recumbent Shelby at the time. Pedaling my 3 wheeled recumbent (and not my 2 wheeled bike) made me very steady on the road. I was able to recovered fairly well considering his tires were inches from my face. Had I been on a 2 wheeler I most likely would have fallen and who knows what would of happened. Those tires were right there, inches from me.
The driver then stopped his F150 truck in the middle of the street and exited it. He was in an attack stance screaming something at me. I’m sure it was profanity. I”m not the type of person who puts labels on people, but in the last 5-6 years the political climate of my area has taken a drastic change. Now a days in my area, a big black truck, veteran plates, not a senior citizen, and a super violent and aggressive driver, my first thought was he might have a weapon. I quickly u-turned in traffic (not even looking). I just wanted to get away. I used my Apple Watch with cell service to called 911.
Once I got past the center divide area, I was thinking he was gone. Boy was I wrong. He had moved his truck. It was now parked in the middle of the road blocking the other lane of traffic and he was again standing outside the truck, in what I saw as an attack stance. I u-turned again while trying to get 911 to send officers. FYI they didn’t.
I was thinking, I need to keep him in my sight or he’ll run me over from behind. So I u-turned again to see where he was. He left thank goodness. He probably left because he could hear me screaming at 911.
My 911 call was useless no one came for a long time. I pedaled to a church parking lot about 3 blocks away. I hung up and called 911 again. Granted I was somewhat panicked and my street location was off, but I was busy trying to save my life, while negotiating traffic, pedaling a bike and talking to 911.
Talking to 911 was difficult. I’m deaf. I use a cochlear implant. I had my Apple watch with cell service to make the call. I told 911 I can’t hear. They never geo tagged me to find my location and send help.
To be perfectly honest the 911 call caused so much anxiety. They were of no help. I was calm and attentive while dealing with the driver, but when it came to talking to 911, I was panicked. The 911 operator just didn’t seem to be of any help and was actually causing me to be distracted.
After I reached the church parking lot, I called 911 again it was only after I gave them my exact location did 2 officers slowly arrive. I’m maybe 6 blocks from the police station.
The one officer then proceeded to lecture a very scared and shaken person, Me, by reading snippets out of the 2018 vehicle code handbook, this is 2023. California bike laws have changed so much in the last 9 years and the officer didn’t seem to know any of them. The officer proceeded to tell me numerous times, as I was shaking, that it was his job to EDUCATE me! I was not in the wrong at all. The deranged driver broke so many laws, along with harassment and assault with a deadly weapon, a vehicle.
This happened on Monday Sept 25th 2023 at 7:30a. Officers still have not filed the report nor have they watched the video of the attack or contacted me. I did get 1 correspondence about the incident from the PD after I emailed them. The return email was not address to me, the way I wrote it to the police. It was addressed to I guess I’m the little woman Mrs _____. How insulting! Not once did I label myself as a Mrs. I wrote a professional business email and in return, I received a condescending email addressed to Mrs _____. It said, because I didn’t get hurt there’s nothing they will do.
FYI
I have front and rear dash cams on ALL my bikes. I have the make, model and lic plate of the truck. The attack is well documented from the front and back viewpoint with audio and so far the police have done nothing that I know of.
Check it out on YouTube. Driver threatens cyclist
The driver didn’t kill me, but he’s going to kill someone real soon.