Shocking road rage attack leaves young dad terrified of trucks
A Friday morning drive quickly became a horror scene for an Adelaide family.
The young family said they were left fearing for their lives during a terrifying road rage confrontation with an angry truck driver in the northern suburb of Bolivar.
“I was very nervous, because when he did get out the truck the first thing he did was hit my daughter’s window with a bat,” the father told Today Tonight.
The man, his wife and their two toddlers were in the car at the time.
“My heart was going a million miles an hour, I couldn’t sit still, I was shaking, I couldn’t like breathe properly,” he said.
The truck driver can be heard saying in the video, “You want to blame me for your bad driving. That’s all you want to do.”
The father claimed, “Then he started to go and he crashed into the front of my car and then went the wrong way around the intersection.
“It was just a big scrape, snap, crack, it was awful.”
The entire episode was captured on dash cam.
“I was scared that something might have happened to me because he was like threatening to hit me in the head, and if anything happened to me I don’t know what would have happened to the kids,” the father alleged.
And even though the young family managed to escape without physical injury – it has impacted the father.
“Driving on the roads is fine it’s just whenever there’s a truck near me I start the panic and sometimes I’ll turn off because from an incident like that, driving with my kids they’re the number one priority.”
Today Tonight did contact the truck driver involved, who did not accept their request for an interview. But he did tell Today Tonight he believed he was the victim.
Meanwhile, police are investigating.
A recent Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (RAA) survey found more than 85 per cent of respondents had copped obscene gestures or language from another driver.
“It is concerning that road rage does seem to be increasing and certainly as motorists on the road you don’t want to feel that you’re going to be subject to that sort of behaviour,” Hailey Cain from the RAA said.
Ms Cain added catching events on camera can assist with insurance claims.
“When emotions are heightened in a road rage incident, it’s easy for the participants of that incident to recall it a little differently, so dash cam is the truth”
And it may stop others from their on-road outbursts.
“It is very helpful firstly as a deterrent so if you are a victim of road rage or about to become a victim it is good for the attacker I guess to see a camera, and perhaps they’ll rethink their actions,” Ms Cain said.
“All we can advise is that people take care of their own driving behaviours, their own habits and ensure that they’re aware of what’s happening around them and to remain calm.”
