Clawhammers and Corporate Taxis

This morning driving to work I was almost side swiped by a Corporate Taxi, who squeezed past me, half in my lane and half on the roadside next to the gutter. That he did it with speed and was so unpredictable made me swear out loud, causing Quentin to sit up in the boot and look at me in the rear view mirror while making a Marge Simpson disapproving sound.

I managed to catch up with the corporate taxi and I slowed, as I pulled along side, stared at him, I then wound down my window. Before I could say anything traffic in my lane slowed me down and he looked at me, before speeding off, and shook his head as if my safety were inconsequential compared to his need to get to the airport (I guess) and pick up his corporate John.

Now while I may well have been righteously pissed about his driving I wasn’t going to follow him until he stopt and then take him out with a claw hammer or some piece of heavy metal. Not like Toma Lauaki did to the truck driver or, sometime later, the similar incident when another truck driver, a Paul Molner, was threatened by an enraged driver.

As I carried on driving I got to reflecting about how I would have reacted if our child had been in the car. Pudney and Cottrell talk about the sense of Protector a father assumes and probably, to some degrees, is chemical programmed to be. They write:

“Your baby has the right to know that you (the father) are prepared to be a strong guardian and make the world a safe place for him/her.”

So it’s interesting to know that Lauaki claims the truck driver (in his truck) nearly forced his car off the road, his car carrying his wife and two of his children. Likewise, the other case, the man who threatened to attack Mr Molner accused him of “endangering his baby’s life”.

I’m not saying I condone these acts, I’m just saying... interesting.