CO Road Rage

In Colorado, what should I know about road rage incidents and how can I avoid them? If involved in a road rage incident, when can I use my firearm? When should I call 911? Click to get answers from Doug Richards, Independent Program Attorney for U.S. Law Shield of Colorado.



Transcript:

Road rage is the number one way that U.S. Law Shield members end up here in my office, sitting in one of these chairs, talking to me about their specific situation, because generally road rage and firearms lead to you getting arrested.

Now if you're in a road-rage situation with another driver, another motorist, and no weapons are used, it's usually very easy to diffuse the situation by driving to a police station or a fire station or some very public area. Generally that's going to defuse a situation. If the other driver is upset, they're typically going to, you know, go in a different direction.

If no firearms are being used, you might consider calling 9-1-1 to report the incident, and sort of give them a running dialogue. This might be one of those rare exceptions where you stay on the phone with 9-1-1 because, if you are driving, or you know, if you're driving, and the other motorist and you end up at a red light, and they exit their vehicle, you could be on the phone with 9-1-1 and reporting play-by-play what the other person is doing, and typically if they see you on the phone, and hear what you're doing, and hear you reporting what they are doing, that's typically going to defuse the situation. It's also going to serve as a great piece of exculpatory evidence if anybody's ever questioning your in a court of law later on down the road.

If however, firearms are used, you end up in a situation of should I call 9-1-1 or should I not call 9-1-1? And it's a very difficult situation for me to give you advice on at this exact time because I've had situations where clients did not call 9-1-1, and nothing happened of it. I've also had situations where clients call 9-1-1, and they were the ones that got arrested, so it's a very difficult situation.

I think the most important thing that you do, is you call U.S. Law Shield of Colorado immediately. In fact, you could call U.S. Law Shield of Colorado while this whole situation is unfolding, and we can provide you very firm advice, very specific advice, for what you should do in that moment. So you've got this membership "” don't hesitate to use it. Don't forget your number. Don't forget your card, and thank you for watching.