“Crazy And Strange Encounter On 403 - Did I Fail To Stop??”

A friend was driving behind me and noticed a Honda Civic was refusing to let him merge out of the fast lane, kept speeding up to keep him out of the middle lane when he wanted to get out of the fast lane. My friend and I both have fast looking cars, which make us a bit of a target for this, people ASSUME we're out street racing when we're not (you'll have to trust me on this, I drive my car on weekends only for track and I'm very conscious of how it appears to others so I try to be extra courteous on the road). So my friend passed me in frustration, and the Honda lit off after him, both now in the fast lane. My friend passed me gradually, and I could see this was turning into a road rage scenario as the Honda was right on his butt. I admit this probably wasn't the best idea to get involved, but I pulled out quickly to get between the two of them and just kept my speed constant to put some distance between them, and let them cool off. Once they had some distance I sped up to where there was an opening and pulled over a lane.

This enraged the Honda driver, who I noticed had a fire dept sticker in his front window. He was now flailing his arms around in anger, so I pull back over a few lanes just go un-involve myself in this, since there's now some distance between us all on the road again. At this point he pulls up next to me and starts holding something up at me then picks up his phone and starts phoning what I imagine is the police with my plates. There's no way I'm going to engage someone so enraged unless it's a police officer (even then) but I would have liked the chance to stop and explain myself. Either way I just kept driving.

I know what I did wasn't super bright as I probably shouldn't have got involved, but at the end of the day I at least prevented them all from escalating it even further into a road rage incident by separating them, because it was clearly going that way so I stand by that.

It dawned on me later that he was probably flashing a badge at me or something, so my worry is a.) I actually kind of cut off an off duty police officer because do fire fighters have badges b.) is there any way to find out if there is a warrant or somesuch out for my plates? I really don't want this misunderstanding to turn into some sort of vendetta against me when I was trying to keep people separated and calm!

You would be notified by phone or in person if you were going to be charged.

Very unlikely though..

Next time: Just let them be.

Your friend should have been smart enough to just slow down and not have let it turn into road rage though because by the sounds of this you guys are use to this...

It's not a case of failing to stop, even if he was a police officer. For that section to apply the officer has to be "readily identifiable as such". It appears in this case he was not.

I agree, it does not appear like a "fail to stop." Anyway, it would have been pretty obvious within a couple of minutes if you'd really failed to stop: Odot would've pulled you over.

In the situation you discribe it would be unwise to stop. Seems to me you were unsure if he was a cop or not, so dont beat yourself up. I dont think police can pull you over off duty or in their personal vehicles. (nor would I stop) As it may be difficult to tell even if he had an unmarked car... thats why they have flashing blue lights.