While driving in N. California on 101 just before the Oregon border, I encountered an intensely…read moreaggressive driver. So intense my 6 year-old twins were in hysterics, and I feared he'd run us off the road, as well as the car in front of me. The aggressive driver continued to weave, and accelerate to bumpers in between the other driver and myself. I get to Brookings, 30 minutes later, go 37 in the 35 mph zone and finally get some space between the driver and myself for the first time in the 30 minutes. This is where the Brookings police / Curry county sheriff's office came in. I saw them in my rear view mirror and was so relieved. Their lights came and I thought finally, someone was doing something to help us, and the frightening scenario was over... However, the officer continued and pulled behind my car pulling us over. The officer said someone had called me in as racing on 911! I said "with my 6-year-olds in the car?" and thought he had to be joking. He then proceeded through verbal aggression, to threaten me, say I'm "a danger to my children", and when I was so upset and shaken I couldn't find the car's registration and insurance right away, he continued the verbal aggression by insinuating it wasn't even my car, like insinuating I stole the car (it's my husband's). The officer had already looked up my info from my license and had to have seen my last name and address matched the owner, my husband. My kids were horrified I was going to be taken away, and I was horrified I was going to be taken away. This officer continued to intimidate me and threaten me, especially when I questioned the validity of the of the "racing" call, he told me I was being "irate" and demanded that I "needed to stop". It just so happened the aggressive driver I'd been fearing for the 30 minutes prior slowly pulled past me, as I sat on the side of the road with the officer. I think it was obviously the aggressive driver who made the "racing call". Halfway through the officer's intimidation's, my kids (one in actual shock the other in hysterics) in the back seats, asked the officer why he was doing this, instead of helping us. The officer said because "their mother put them in danger". Right from the start I asked the officer if he saw I have Zero speeding history... a question he ignored, but of course he saw when looking up my license. I would never race, let alone with my children. I am a 37-old-mother with no criminal history, no speeding record, and my own mother died in 1994 as the after effect of a drunk driving accident years earlier.
In the 30 minutes or so, the officer mentioned I was driving a Tesla with a tone of disgust, literally at least half a dozen times. As if It was my driving a Tesla in the first place, as the reasoning behind the aggression.
In the end the officer pointed out that the speed limit had changed from 35-25. He continued the threatening of me by saying again I was "endangering my children by going twice the speed limit" in doing so. I fully admitted i missed the speed limit changed for .4 miles of the change in town from 25 - 35. I tried to explain I was truly watching my speed and thought I was only going 2mph over the 35 speed limit. I was so focused on the real aggressive driver, I missed the brief change. Even so, the math of 37 being "twice the speed limit" as the officer accused me, doesn't add up either. All this officer wanted to do was bully and scare my children and I.
I called the Sheriff's office, spoke with the sheriff himself a few days after the event. The Sheriff listened to the tapes and said the officer was in his right place, and refused to admit any wrong doing on the officer's part. The sheriff stated in a voicemail he left me: the reason my children were audibly upset in the taping was because I had been a reckless danger to them. I left it at that. I paid the ticket I had been issued, although I was told showing up in person and speaking to the judge would almost certainly resolve everything, in terms of the ticket I was issued.
We frequent S. Oregon coast as well as the Northern Redwoods. We've stayed as a family in Brookings, we have friends there. We're currently looking to buy a home in between Bandon and Eureka. However, my kids had nightmares of this event with this aggressive officer for 6 months. The event happened in May. I still have PTSD over the event. I'm extremely scared to set foot in Brookings again. I truly feared the officer would throw me in jail, and take away my children 330 miles away from where we live in Portland, and during a pandemic. I also feared the officer physically hurting me. I am now scarred of Brookings, and want nothing to do with it, this town I've been visiting since childhood. The law there made me feel I was going to have my children taken away. When in the end, all the officer could throw at me along with the allegations of "endangering my children" was I went 37 in a 25mph zone.
