Caught On Video: Road Rage Leads To Brawl, Baseball Bat Attack On Staten Island Expressway
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A violent road rage incident was caught on camera, and now police are searching for a driver seen in the video using a baseball bat in the attack.
The raging driver with a baseball bat settled a score right on the Staten Island Expressway. The target of his fury was a big rig trucker, whose dashcam was rolling, with audio on.
The ugly confrontation came in three waves: First, high speed swerving, then middle of the expressway wrestling, and finally bashing the truck with a baseball bat.
A sedan with New Jersey plates can be seen on the video zipping back and forth all over the expressway early morning Friday October 11th.
For reasons unknown, it seems he's playing a game of chicken with the truck driver.
Then, near the Clove Road exit, the driver stopped the car, exited and confronted the trucker.
Out of dash cam view, you don't hear most of what's being said, except this:
"You put your hands on me? You just put your hands on me?" the truck driver said.
That's the final straw as the truck driver tackles the smaller man. They rumbled on the roadway until two other drivers stop and help break it up, thinking that was the end of it.
But then the man grabbed his bat.
"You better not, man! You better not!" the truck driver said.
The truck's windows and headlights were smashed.
The sedan driver came close to crashing in his rush to get away.
Police, who consider it a criminal mischief case, have not made an arrest.
CBS2's Dave Carlin called the truck driver to try and find out what started this. The calls were not returned.
Much of the reaction to this bizarre incident unfolding the way it did in such a dangerous place focuses on how someone could have been killed including other drivers innocently passing by, Carlin reported.
"It's crazy out here," one driver said. "They're putting everything, everybody at risk."
"Everybody needs to just calm down, relax," another driver said.
At least no one was injured in this example of road rage: Extreme expressway edition.
Based on readings from the dash camera, at times both vehicles appeared to be going faster than the speed limit.
