Dangerous driving and bottle-throwing led to a road-rage confrontation in Flat Bush, Auckland on Christmas Day.
Video / Supplied
A man allegedly targeted in a Christmas Day road-rage attack in Auckland’s Flat Bush has revealed the injuries he says he sustained in the incident.
The man, who asked not to be named, told the Herald he was on his way to an afternoon Christmas celebration at hisgirlfriend’s house when the incident happened at 2pm.
He said he was trying to merge from a double lane into a single lane when the Toyota involved allegedly sped up.
“I tried to merge in with the traffic and he sped up and wouldn’t let me pass, so I sped up to get in front. He obviously did not like that at all,” the man said.
The video shows the driver of the Toyota throwing things at his vehicle.
“He then drove beside me, tried to swerve and push me off the road. I couldn’t go any further to the left; he then swerved into oncoming traffic,” said the man.
The altercation went on for a few hundred metres, with the Toyota “tailgating me the whole time”, he said.
“I didn’t want to let the Toyota pass me. I really wasn’t sure what he was going to do at that point,” the man said.
“Sure enough, as soon as he saw a gap, he pulled in front of me and slammed his brakes on so hard.”
The driver of the Toyota then got out of his car and walked up to his vehicle, before punching him in the face twice, breaking his glasses and hitting his eye socket.
A man was punched in the face twice in a Christmas Day road-rage altercation in Auckland's Flat Bush.
“I wound my window down so I could hear what he was going to say. In hindsight, I probably should have left it up,” he said.
“When he punched me, the force of it made me slump in my seat and my foot came off the brake. That’s when my car lurched into his, so he came back and punched me again.”
The man's glasses were snapped after he was punched twice during a road-rage incident in Auckland's Flat Bush on December 25.
The man said it felt like it “all happened so fast”. The force of the punch broke his glasses and caused him to fall into the passenger seat.
“I grabbed my phone to get a photo of the man and his number plate for police, and he came back again and snatched it off me...” he said.
The Toyota driver then allegedly returned to the man’s vehicle and threw his phone at his head.
“Since then, I’ve had a massive headache and a swollen eye socket,” he said.
The driver of a Toyota who was allegedly involved in a road-rage incident in Flat Bush, South Auckland on December 25.
The man said if it weren’t for Natalie’s footage, he would not have seen what happened properly.
“I’m so grateful Natalie saw this and she had a dashcam, because I had no proper idea what was going on behind me,” he said.
The man who was punched then became angry, Natalie said.
Traffic that had backed up behind the pair could then pass.
Natalie and her family returned home. They assumed one of the drivers had contacted the police because they saw him take out his phone as if to make a call.
However, a police spokesperson told the Herald they were not aware of any reports about the incident at this stage.
Natalie wanted to highlight the drivers’ behaviour because it had caused “a lot of disruption and fear” for other motorists.
Police have received a report regarding the incident and are in the early stages of making inquiries.
Katie Oliver is a Christchurch-based multimedia journalist and breaking news reporter.
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
