When it's okay to call 9-1-1

We teach our children from a very young age how to use 9-1-1 and then we scare the geepers out of them by telling them not to call. We tell them it in case of an extreme emergency like an accident where mom or dad can't speak, a fire, or car accident it's okay. But never any other times!! Because we know if we abuse it we will be fined big time!

So as I was driving long last night I needed to use 9-1-1 and my daughter looked at me when it was all over and said 'I did not know you could do that.'

We were heading to soccer (where else would I be going) as I was getting onto the highway there was a thug in a pick-up truck that was speeding up in the slow lane and was not going to let me in regardless if it is the law that you are to move over because I am running out of road.

He flies up onto the back of my car on purpose and then changes lanes within inches of my car. He then proceeds to give me the finger and starts pointing at his head like I need to think or am I stupid or something alone those lines. At this point we are on the highway and he is in front of my and he is doing all these hand signals so I gave him the finger back. This is when it turned to pure dangerous road rage and he decided he was going to terrorize my daughter and myself.

He gets in front of my and hits his breaks then he speeds up and changes lanes and then gets behind me and is right on my back bumper this goes on as I stay at the speed limit and try to keep out of his way. He gets besides me to forces me from my lane. He is going to have no part of just leaving me alone. He keeps it up until we get to the top of a very dangerous bridge which has high winds most of the time. I'm in the center lane and he pulls up beside me and jerks on his wheel forcing me to swerve into the lane beside me. All I can say is thank goodness no one was beside me and I have ESC (electronic stability control) or I would have rolled the car and he would have killed us. It was at this point that I called 9-1-1.

There are MTO (Ministry of Transportation Ontario) cameras all over the highway I happened to be on, so 9-1-1 could watch what was going on and what he was doing to me. At several points he was tauting my daughter with a hand signal and she saw him saying "bring it on". The speeding up and slowing down went on as I tried to stay calm and they watched him ~ I had 9-1-1 on the speaker and she talked us through but even with them on the line I have to say it was still extremely scary. The 9-1-1 operator had to get me off the highway as she was directed me to the OPP station and he followed us off the highway.

It was at the top of the ramp when I saw the red light I broke down and started to cry. I was so scared he would do something to us as all the time he was taunting us we did nothing to provoke him, I just tried to stay away from him. She assure me the police were waiting for me, the car was locked and we were in a very public place so we would be okay. I have to say OPP Officer Dave was amazing! He helped calm us down and made sure we were okay. He could see the fright in my daughter and assured us this guy would not be getting away with this, he personally was going to visit this guy and make sure he never terrorizes anyone again. They told me they will put this on his driving record so if he does this again or is in a accident this will come back like karma to bit him!

It was absolutely the scariest thing I have encountered and to terrorize a 15yr old is beyond thug mentality. The only good that came from it was my daughter now knows that you can use 9-1-1 besides when there is a fire or someone is hurt in your home.

It is extremely important that we teach our kids that you can use 9-1-1 at times other then a pure accident or fire. Our teens are starting to drive and need to know when they are on the road and see a drunk driver or have someone (god forbid) drive like a maniac thug and scares them it's okay to call. Someone is on the other end to help them besides mom or dad. Also 99.9% of phone carriers in North America keep 9-1-1 alive on a cell phone even if you run out of minutes.

Contributed by: Mind of a Mom