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Road Rage Incident in Montana

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Montana shootings leave 1 dead, trooper and 2 others wounded

MISSOULA, Mont. – A man has been arrested after opening fire on a pickup truck in a self-described "road rage incident" in Montana, killing one of the passengers inside and injuring two more people, including a state trooper.

Police apprehended 29-year-old Johnathan Bertsch after he allegedly flashed the lights of his Cadillac Escalade at the truck in front of him, then began shooting when the car stopped. The bullets struck Casey Blanchard and Shelley Hayes, along with Blanchard's mother, Julie, who had driven to a Missoula bar to pick the two friends up.

The state trooper is in critical condition. He was shot some 10 miles away outside a bar where the perpetrator's truck was sighted.

Bertsch allegedly fled the scene but was later apprehended with the help of his father, who said Bertsch called him and said, "I had a road rage incident. ... I think I might have shot a cop," according to the charging documents.

I'll admit that I sometimes get angry and frustrated while driving in traffic, but it always amazes me when people take it to this level. It's like some drivers think "This road is mine. MINE! Anyone who gets in my way is dead!"

I've heard it said that a person's "real" personality comes out when they're driving, as if people switch to berzerker mode when they get behind the wheel of a car.

One has to develop a survival instinct on the road, drive defensively, and be able to spot and avoid the real lunatics out there. Be safe.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
Montana shootings leave 1 dead, trooper and 2 others wounded



The state trooper is in critical condition. He was shot some 10 miles away outside a bar where the perpetrator's truck was sighted.



I'll admit that I sometimes get angry and frustrated while driving in traffic, but it always amazes me when people take it to this level. It's like some drivers think "This road is mine. MINE! Anyone who gets in my way is dead!"

I've heard it said that a person's "real" personality comes out when they're driving, as if people switch to berzerker mode when they get behind the wheel of a car.

One has to develop a survival instinct on the road, drive defensively, and be able to spot and avoid the real lunatics out there. Be safe.

There are predators too, with many different
schemes. Women are special targets. Especially
young women with expensive cars.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Montana shootings leave 1 dead, trooper and 2 others wounded



The state trooper is in critical condition. He was shot some 10 miles away outside a bar where the perpetrator's truck was sighted.



I'll admit that I sometimes get angry and frustrated while driving in traffic, but it always amazes me when people take it to this level. It's like some drivers think "This road is mine. MINE! Anyone who gets in my way is dead!"

I've heard it said that a person's "real" personality comes out when they're driving, as if people switch to berzerker mode when they get behind the wheel of a car.

One has to develop a survival instinct on the road, drive defensively, and be able to spot and avoid the real lunatics out there. Be safe.
Road rage doesn't really have anything to do with the driving skills or patterns of others. There are simply some people among us that are living with a great deal of unresolved rage within them; that anything and anything could trigger into a violent irrational act.

This is why it's so important that we each take responsibility for our own feelings, even though those feelings may have been causes by someone else's behavior toward us, and that we learn how to let them go safely and with positive effect. We are ultimately responsible for what's going on it our own hearts and minds, and we have an obligation to ourselves and our fellow humans to accept that responsibility, and to rise to it.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Montana shootings leave 1 dead, trooper and 2 others wounded



The state trooper is in critical condition. He was shot some 10 miles away outside a bar where the perpetrator's truck was sighted.



I'll admit that I sometimes get angry and frustrated while driving in traffic, but it always amazes me when people take it to this level. It's like some drivers think "This road is mine. MINE! Anyone who gets in my way is dead!"

I've heard it said that a person's "real" personality comes out when they're driving, as if people switch to berzerker mode when they get behind the wheel of a car.

One has to develop a survival instinct on the road, drive defensively, and be able to spot and avoid the real lunatics out there. Be safe.
Just one piece of the cost of having an armed citizenry.

... but I'm sure the anti-gun control types here will claim that this has nothing to do with them.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
Road rage doesn't really have anything to do with the driving skills or patterns of others. There are simply some people among us that are living with a great deal of unresolved rage within them; that anything and anything could trigger into a violent irrational act.

This is why it's so important that we each take responsibility for our own feelings, even though those feelings may have been causes by someone else's behavior toward us, and that we learn how to let them go safely and with positive effect. We are ultimately responsible for what's going on it our own hearts and minds, and we have an obligation to ourselves and our fellow humans to accept that responsibility, and to rise to it.

A little preachy, but yes.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
There are predators too, with many different
schemes. Women are special targets. Especially
young women with expensive cars.

Yup.

Though i saw the opposite this morning.

I had stopped at a roundabout, at the the next junction round a beat up old mazda mx2, male driver, roof down, music blaring swerved round a female driver in a bmw just pulling up to the junction causing her to swerve and break hard.

The mx2 had to stop for traffic on the roundabout. The lady got out of her car and walked to the mx2 and began remonstrating with the driver who stuck his middle finger up at her.

They lady grabbed him by the collar, slapped his face twice, returned to her car and drove around the stunned driver in the mx2.
 

dianaiad

Well-Known Member
Just one piece of the cost of having an armed citizenry.

... but I'm sure the anti-gun control types here will claim that this has nothing to do with them.

It doesn't. If that guy hadn't had a gun......

Hmnn....There is a film called 'Fried Green Tomatoes" Remember it? In it, a woman was about to park her car when a couple of young girls swooped in and took it. They mocked the woman, saying 'Face it, we're younger and faster." That's when Lawanda parked in the spot anyway, using her own car to bash the girl's car into a mashed mess, moving it out of the way. "Face it, girls...I'm older and have more insurance."

Road rage isn't about whether one has a gun. I've seen more than one 'road rage' incident, not one of them had guns involved. Fists, cars, baseball bats, crowbars, more fists, horns, more fender bending than one can imagine.

If that guy hadn't had a gun, he'd have simply rear-ended the other car, or beaten the driver with something handy. Road rage is about the rage, not about the weapon used to express it.

BTW, I AM of the opinion that any weapon in a car should be in a locked container in the trunk. Safety reasons.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I just realized that I'm prejudiced against Cadillac Escalades.
th

It just screams....
"Lah dee dah!"
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
It doesn't. If that guy hadn't had a gun......

Hmnn....There is a film called 'Fried Green Tomatoes" Remember it? In it, a woman was about to park her car when a couple of young girls swooped in and took it. They mocked the woman, saying 'Face it, we're younger and faster." That's when Lawanda parked in the spot anyway, using her own car to bash the girl's car into a mashed mess, moving it out of the way. "Face it, girls...I'm older and have more insurance."

Road rage isn't about whether one has a gun. I've seen more than one 'road rage' incident, not one of them had guns involved. Fists, cars, baseball bats, crowbars, more fists, horns, more fender bending than one can imagine.

If that guy hadn't had a gun, he'd have simply rear-ended the other car, or beaten the driver with something handy. Road rage is about the rage, not about the weapon used to express it.

BTW, I AM of the opinion that any weapon in a car should be in a locked container in the trunk. Safety reasons.
You don't get it. He gunned down the people, killing one of the women. If he didn't have a gun, they likely would still be alive.
 

wandering peacefully

Which way to the woods?
Montana shootings leave 1 dead, trooper and 2 others wounded



The state trooper is in critical condition. He was shot some 10 miles away outside a bar where the perpetrator's truck was sighted.



I'll admit that I sometimes get angry and frustrated while driving in traffic, but it always amazes me when people take it to this level. It's like some drivers think "This road is mine. MINE! Anyone who gets in my way is dead!"

I've heard it said that a person's "real" personality comes out when they're driving, as if people switch to berzerker mode when they get behind the wheel of a car.

One has to develop a survival instinct on the road, drive defensively, and be able to spot and avoid the real lunatics out there. Be safe.
They should definitely teach mindfulness and breath meditation in driving schools. It's so wonderful to be relaxed and happy and to let the crazy driver get by you and as far away as possible and to be grateful not to be an angry person as they are!
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
It doesn't. If that guy hadn't had a gun......

Hmnn....There is a film called 'Fried Green Tomatoes" Remember it? In it, a woman was about to park her car when a couple of young girls swooped in and took it. They mocked the woman, saying 'Face it, we're younger and faster." That's when Lawanda parked in the spot anyway, using her own car to bash the girl's car into a mashed mess, moving it out of the way. "Face it, girls...I'm older and have more insurance."

Road rage isn't about whether one has a gun. I've seen more than one 'road rage' incident, not one of them had guns involved. Fists, cars, baseball bats, crowbars, more fists, horns, more fender bending than one can imagine.

If that guy hadn't had a gun, he'd have simply rear-ended the other car, or beaten the driver with something handy. Road rage is about the rage, not about the weapon used to express it.

BTW, I AM of the opinion that any weapon in a car should be in a locked container in the trunk. Safety reasons.

Even before Fried Green Tomatoes, I recall reading about a similar incident in which an older lady smashed into the car of two younger women who snagged a parking spot just like in the movie. Perhaps that real life incident inspired the scene in the movie.

I sometimes wonder if an insurance company would have to pay under those circumstances. Road rage is considered a crime, so if you use your car in the commission of a crime and cause damage, does the insurance company still have to pay?

Parking lot rage can be pretty nasty. I would just rather park further away and walk than try to go through a big deal just to find the perfect parking space.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
A little preachy, but yes.
My father was prone to road rage....& rage in general.
When he was right, this meant that someone else was wrong.
Let slip the dogs of war, so that sheet metal may crumple.
Even in his 80s, he got arrested for letting some gal know "the truth".
Btw, I didn't inherit that style of driving.
 
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