Mayor counters road rage

By Jeff Nagel - Langley Times - March 26, 2008

Anyone can be the victim of a scary road rage incident — just ask Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender.

He was driving to downtown Langley with his wife one day last year when a pickup truck zoomed up behind him and proceeded to flash its lights and bounce aggressively on his back bumper.

Fassbender was doing the speed limit — 50 km/h — on 208 Street.

“This guy was wanting to do twice the limit,” he said.

Fassbender eventually got to a red light where he swung into the left turn lane, and the truck pulled alongside.

“He rolls down his window, gives me the finger and is yelling obscenities at me,” Fassbender recounted. “He says ‘Who do you think you are, the local cop?’

“I said, ‘No, I’m the mayor.’”

The other driver roared off.

But since it was a marked business truck, Fassbender wrote down the phone number, got to city hall and called the manager of the business.

“When I was dialing I thought, what if it was the manager who was the guy doing it? But then I thought I don’t care.”

Within an hour the manager had collared the offending employee and forced the man to call the mayor and grovel.

“He said ‘I’m really sorry.’

“I said, ‘No, you’re an idiot.’”

Not everyone can get revenge Fassbender-style — many motorists might now count themselves lucky to survive the encounter.

Fassbender said aggressive drivers are terrorizing law-abiding motorists.

He advises people to “chill out” and avoid escalating the situation.

“But if you see things, take note of a licence plate or a phone number and report it,” he said. “Police can’t be everywhere all the time.”

If enough people do that, he said, the bullies will find less room on the road.

Email | Print | Letter to Editor | Share on Facebook

Mayor counters road rage

Most read in your Region

Most read across BC