Road Rage and Cell Phones

While I have seen road rage occur, and been flipped off more than a few times, I have NEVER experienced what happened to me today.

I was driving home from work around 3:45pm. I had hit Bountiful when my cell phone rang. I make it a point not to carry on conversations while I am driving, but I do like my kids to check in so I know they got home from school okay and I can tell them how far I am from getting home. I had barely answered the phone when a car that was behind me and to the right apparently didn't like that I had answered the phone. He sped up and made his way into my lane directly beside me(until his car was taking up half my lane). I had no where to go. There was a truck immediately to my left. The driver of the car kept pointing at my phone and yelling... what I don't know... I immediately dropped my phone and floored the gas to get in front of the truck and over before I was pushed into it from the side.

I haven't decided if this jerk was trying to purposely cause me to be in an accident and hoping I would become yet another "cell phone" statistic, even though my driving had been safe up until his little antics, or if he thought he was saving the world from the devil and her 10 second phone call... but I do know, what I did was not illegal in the state of Utah and what he did was!

After I made it out front of the truck I reached to pick up my phone, which had fallen on the floor, swerving to get it... so yes, at this point, I was shaking, swerving, and freaking out, not because the phone call, but because the jerk almost killed me! I picked up my phone and immediately began dialing 911.. the only thing I could think to do... Unfortunately, either the jerk saw me dialing and guessed who I was calling, or in his haste to free the world of the devil herself--driving a mini-van on a sparse freeway, he quickly exited, cutting off 2 cars and barely making it off the ramp (way outside the road) before I could get his license plate number.

So, here is the question... was his solution worth putting all the cars in the freeway at risk because he was not happy with my 10 second call? I don't think so. Did he cause me to change my ways... he sure did... I picked up the phone and had conversations all the way home just to calm my nerves!

Please note... I do not advocate cell phone use while driving, never had, never will... especially texting!