KIRO listeners step up to help victim of road rage

Getting cut off, maybe a few hand gestures. That is usually the extent of the road rage we experience. For a Seattle woman, the anger she encountered on the Mukilteo Speedway was the stuff of nightmares.

Fortunately, after 97.3 KIRO FM first aired this story on the Ron and Don Show, two generous listeners stepped forward offering to help Emily Lawson with the repairs to her car.

Jason Martin with Auto Glass USA spoke with Lawson about replacing the back window that was smashed. Shayne Hedahl with Special Interest Auto Body in Everett offered to complete all the repairs needed.

The damage was done to her Ford Escort Sunday afternoon when Lawson was driving home from a family barbeque. She was on the Mukilteo Speedway at a red light. When the light turned green, a boxy, black SUV cut her off.

The SUV was driving erratically. Lawson said when it moved over to the shoulder, she was able to get around him.

“He proceeded to follow us, swerving around the road, screaming and waving his arms,” said Lawson.

It was so ridiculous, Lawson and her 25-year-old passenger laughed it off at first. That is, until both cars got stuck at a red light at State Route 525 and 148th Street near Mukilteo. She says the driver of the SUV stopped behind her, jumped out and ran toward her car.

The man, described as six-feet tall and a very muscular 200 pounds, jumped on the back of Lawson’s car and slammed his arms down on the roof hard enough to leave a dent.

Then, Lawson said, he ripped the spoiler off the back of her car and uses it to smash through her back window. The impact was so hard pieces of glass flew at the back of Lawson’s head and up onto the dashboard of her car.

“As soon as he busted out the window and was still screaming in such a fit of rage, I thought he was going to kill us,” Lawson says.

When the light finally turned green and Lawson drove away, she says the man threw the spoiler back into her car through the missing back window. A few minutes later she stopped to call 911, and she realized a lot of people must have seen what had happened.

“Nobody stopped to help us. That was disappointing. We were two women in a car being attacked by this “Hulk” guy who was just bashing our car up,” said Lawson.

She was not able to get a license plate number, but she is hoping now that her story is out there someone might come forward.

“I’ve had nightmares since then. I haven’t been able to sleep well. It’s been a hard thing to deal with,” Lawson said.

Lawson works for a non-profit that does outreach to homeless kids. She said she could not afford to fix all the damage the other driver did to her car. She was ecstatic when she learned she would not have to pay for the repairs.

“Just a few days ago I couldn’t believe how terrible a person could behave, and now […] people are just coming forward and being amazing,” says Lawson.

Lawson has an appointment to drop her car off at Special Interest Auto Body on Monday. When she does, Hedahl has even offered to drive her back home to Seattle.