I really cannot offer an opinion one way or the other on whether Mr. Lien acted reasonably under the circumstances. I do, however, sympathize with his plight. You would have to be living under a rock these days not to have heard of other incidents in which innocent motorists have been assaulted or threatened in "road rage" incidents. And Mr. Lien, with a new wife and a one year old child in the car, was probably justified in being afraid. Here in my home town of Richmond, particularly on the Chippenham Parkway, I've seen plenty of bozos on racing motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic going close to 100 miles per hour, making me have serious questions about their sanity.
Despite these issues, however, it appears that the poor fellow who was seriously injured did nothing wrong and was innocent. Mr. Lien owed him a duty of reasonable care. The question for the jury, if the case ever gets to a jury, will be whether Mr. Lien lived up to that duty under these very bizarre circumstances.
