There's road rage, and then there's motherfuckin' road rage. This incident from the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton in California definitely falls into the latter category, and it was caught on video for the whole world to see.
The video, which was also posted on Gawker yesterday, shows a man identified as a Marine sergeant by 10News.com who attacks a truck with his bare hands and demanding that the driver come outside to face him. It's all captured on film by the driver's sister who is herself a wounded Marine in a wheelchair. She gets called a "cunt" and a "whore" by Prince Charming in the DC Shoes t-shirt.
Things only escalate as the Marine howls like a little baby while he attacks the car, and several other people have to hold him back. All the while, the truck driver stays cool as a cucumber, barely reacting to the man and not moving at all.
10News has more on what happened to the couple in the truck from a friend of theirs named Lisa, who described them as traumatized after it happened:
Lisa told 10News she sent the video in after she was outraged about how it all went down.
"He cut them off and apparently he kept brake-checking them," said Lisa. "He would slam on his brakes abruptly. They hit into the back of him on the third time."
10News contacted the Public Affairs Office at Camp Pendleton, which had not yet seen the video. They tell 10News that the Marine was detained after the incident and cited for communicating a threat.
The office also said in a statement, "This individual's behavior does not meet the standards that are expected of our Marines and it has received the attention of senior base staff."
Scary stuff. I think the driver did exactly the right thing here. He stayed in the car, kept calm, and had his sister keep her camera rolling, which I'm sure will be used as evidence in this guy's prosecution.
Thing is, I almost — almost — feel sorry for the road rager. It's kind of sad to see just how far he takes this. He's clearly unbalanced and I hope he gets the help he needs before he hurts someone for real.
Hat tip to Stephen S.!