Dash cam footage shows this Kia Soul driver brake checking and actively trying to run this MN family off the road.
Presumed Minnesota resident and Redditor /u/Any-Decision7089 shared heart pounding dashcam footage from earlier this week (Feb 11, 2024) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing an aggressively violent Kia Soul driver on I-35E terrorizing this family by brake checking them and actively trying to run them off the road.
Check out /u/Any-Decision7089’s video below.
Rager tries ramming us off the road in Saint Paul, MN. He flew up fast as I was clearing my windshield & passing others. I assume my bug juice on his Kia Soul was his final straw. Reported to Ramsey Co Sheriffs Dept. Happened 2/11/24 on NB I35E between St. Clair & Grand. Lic. MN DVN443 [oc]
byu/Any-Decision7089 inIdiotsInCars
OP also posted a much longer video showing what happened before and after the road rager on Youtube.
The incident happened on a stretch of I-35 E in St. Paul, MN before exit 106 B&C (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As we can see in OP’s video, he’s driving in the left lane of I-35E for about a minute before he changes lanes to the right, and back into the left lane.
We can hear OP having a pleasant conversation with his family.
OP decides to clean some bugs off his windshield and activates his windshield washer nozzles and wipers.
OP is aware of a driver in a Kia Soul approaching from behind him and, according to a comment, already observed this Soul driver road raging moments before he gets targeted.
” I witnessed the Kia driver cut off the person behind me merely seconds before first attempting to force me to stop.”
For whatever reason, perhaps because OP was in the left lane and not passing or his windshield washer fluid hitting his windshield, the Kia Soul driver retaliates.
We see him swing in front of OP’s Hyundai, brake check, and swerve back and forth in front of OP before braking…hard…once more, forcing OP to take evasive measures, driving in the breakdown lane.
It doesn’t end there, as OP tries to drive away from the road rager, the Kia Soul accelerates and squeezes through a narrow gap between OP and another driver in an SUV in the left lane.
The Kia Soul driver then drives off and OP doesn’t follow it.
OP makes sure to say the license plate for the record, DVN-443.
Surprisingly, someone in the comments had a run in with this road rager the day before OP’s encounter.
“OH MY GOD. I HAD AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE SAME GUY THE DAY BEFORE THIS!!,” /u/MinnesotraNice628 comments.
“I was about 1/3 of a mile from my exit off 694 in Fridley onto E River. Dude TAILGATES ME HARD out of nowhere. I pull into the far right lane for my exit, and he swings up on my left, gives me finger stretching his whole body into the passenger seat. Then FLYS off doing 90+ weaving through traffic on 694. Looked like a mid 40’s edgy white dude with a short beard.”
OP mentions in the title that he’s submitted his dashcam footage to the Ramsey Co. Sherrif’s Dept. for future reference.
OP recognizes after the fact that he could’ve made different choices, but he says it happened all too fast, in a matter of seconds, and reacted accordingly.
“Could I or should I have done something differently? Possibly, as everything is so much more clear when looking back in time. Buy this happened in a few short seconds. My immediate priorities in the moment were to keep my family safe, and I believe I acted accordingly.”
“Moments later, as you can see in the full video, he attempts to ram me and then proceeds to endanger several others as he violently swerves multiple lanes. It’s at that time, once I see we are clear, I keep way back. I didn’t further continue to aggregate the situation by following him, and I didn’t get right back into the left lane to “inconvenience” other drivers.”
As with most road rage situations, the best advice is to not engage and to safely avoid one.
This is another good example of having a dashcam running when you’re behind the wheel.
Road ragers love to brake check because in a case of he said she said, OP, unfortunately would have a hard time proving he wasn’t following too close and the fault would be his.
Is this a case of a serial road rager?