Forget Road Rage: Boat Rage Is Apparently A Thing

Everyone knows about road rage, you might have even been a victim or aggressor in an exchange, but a case out of Florida shows that boat rage is a growing trend. What started out as a verbal exchange between fishermen in two boats escalated to the point one man jumped into the other boat.

Road rager breaks victim’s windshield and it’s caught on video.

If that sounds crazy, it is. After all, boarding another person’s craft without permission is the sort of thing pirates do and many would consider that sort of aggression a threat to their safety. The guy who jumped into the other boat quite frankly is lucky he wasn’t shot immediately.

The whole thing went down in Punta Gorda on the Peace River, right under the bridge for the US 41. From the video, which was recorded by the victim, it sounds like there was an incident the night before where the aggressor almost hit someone else fishing in the dark without any lights switched on.

As the much older man makes threatening statements, claiming to be a retired Army Ranger, the young captain of the other boat seems to become increasingly scared as the distance between them closes.

Once the guy jumps on his boat, the kid panics, hits the throttle, and takes off, probably a delayed response as he tries to prevent the hostile action. Then he pleads over and over for the guy to not hurt him, which thankfully doesn’t happen.

The aggressor apparently does chartered fishing trips, but the business he has done those through has severed ties with him, reports Gulf Coast News. Punta Gorda Police Department, Florida Fish and Wildlife, and the US Coast Guard are all investigating the boat rage incident, so the guy could also face criminal charges.

Of course, this isn’t the only incident of boat rage. For example, back in August 2023 a fight that broke out on a Montgomery, Alabama riverfront dock started as an argument between occupants of two boats.

That fight generated considerable media attention and people even lampooned it in videos uploaded to social media.

We thought maybe the waterways were mostly rage-free, but this story has shattered that false perception. People need to calm down instead of ripping into each other. Everyone is stressed these days for good reasons, but trying to fight strangers will only make your life worse.

Image via 10 Tampa Bay/YouTube