Road rage incident explodes into violence as driver rams van off road before pair brawl on roundabout
A road rage incident escalated into a shocking brawl which saw one man punched to the ground – and all of it was caught on dashcam. HGV driver Darren Waite was just trying to get home when he found himself having to split up the warring drivers coming off the M58 near Wigan, Greater Manchester, on Friday, July 5.
The 50-year-old’s dashcam footage shows a white van appearing to pick the wrong lane on a roundabout before switching to avoid re-joining the motorway. A white car jostles with it for position until it swerves dramatically and appears to ram the van, sending both vehicles crashing into a grass verge.
The car driver sees ‘red mist’ and begins ‘throwing punches’ through the van driver’s window – prompting him to eventually get out and the pair begin brawling on the road. The stocky van driver quickly floors his opponent with three punches before grabbing onto his legs and kicking him.
He only stops once Darren jumps from his HGV to separate the pair and tell them to exchange details, which he says they never did. Instead, the car driver can be seen throwing another final punch through the window of the van before it drives off and appears to jump a red light.
The violence erupted as the two jostled for position on the roundabout
Dad-of-five Darren, who was dropping a lorry off at his depot, admitted he ‘just wanted to go home’ after a week working away and ‘couldn’t be bothered’ being stuck behind the brawl. He says a nine or 10-year-old child, who he believes to be the car driver’s son, was even crying in the passenger seat during the brawl.
Facebook[1] users sided with the van driver, who appeared to win the fight, and slammed the ‘total idiot’ hatchback driver for ramming him off the road. They joked that ‘the bloke who started it didn’t finish it’ and another said ‘red mist has got a lot to answer for’.
Darren, from Wigan, said: “It was shocking to see it because you see this stuff online but you never expect to be right behind it. I thought the van had come over to the car but when I watched the video you can see the car veer over quite violently.
“The bloke in the car just launched straight at the van driver and started throwing punches through the window. The van driver’s got out so they started fighting and then they ended up rolling around.
“I work away all week and I just wanted to get home. I couldn’t be bothered to get stuck behind these two so I got out to break it up. The man in the car had a bit of a shock when he saw how big he was. The van driver definitely won.
“The bloke in the white car had his son in the car and he was about nine or 10 years old and he was crying. It could have ended up worse and someone could have been run over.”
Darren says he did not report the incident to police and has not heard from the motorists after giving his number out at the scene. A pal posted the video to Facebook on July 12 and it has since had more than 160 reactions and 40 comments.
One commented: “The bloke who started it didn’t finish it.” A second said: “Red mist has got a lot to answer for.”
A third wrote: “Wtf was the guy in pink playing at? He literally caused the accident and then got beaten up for acting tough.” A fourth added: “I am sorry to sound a pr**k here, but ANYBODY who rams me off the road like that, for a simple lane change mistake, I would of kick the living sh*t out of him. You can’t ram someone off the road and expect not to get a beating. Simple as that.”
A fifth simply said: “The car driver appears to be a total idiot.”