Fists fly in bout of road rage on car free day
Johannesburg - Fists flew in Honeydew on Friday morning as a motorist and a taxi driver climbed into each other in a bout of road rage - on what the department of transport has decreed car free day.
Shouting and screaming, taxi drivers had to be chased from the scene as "chaos" broke out when they pulled in, blocking traffic, to aid their colleague, said Johannesburg metro police.
Bleeding profusely from a cut above his eye, the taxi driver went to the Honeydew police station to lay charges of malicious damage to property, said Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
With both of his hands cut up, the motorist was taken to the Flora Clinic, he said.
No matter what charges they laid against each other with the SA Police Service, both would be charged by the metro police with affray - breaching the peace by fighting in a public place, he said.
The altercation broke out at 07:00, opposite the Clearwater Mall, said West Rand police spokesperson Inspector Zelda Viviers, but she refused to say what had happened.
"At this stage we can't say what happened... I can't go on allegations at this stage, because nothing can be confirmed."
However, according to Minnaar the fight started at the slipway off Hendrik Potgieter Road at its intersection with Christiaan de Wet Road.
The driver of a white Hiace taxi was in the emergency lane. The driver of a grey BMW wanted to take the slipway.
"The taxi driver wouldn't allow him to turn and there was a confrontation between the drivers," said Minnaar.
"(It was) so intense that a little distance further on, they got out and started fighting physically," he said.
Both threw punches at each other.
The BMW's front windscreen was shattered in the fisticuffs. The taxi's front right window was also smashed.
"Metro police arrived and chased away all the other taxi drivers," said Minnaar. The seven vehicles had been blocking the road and "causing chaos", he said.
"They were shouting and screaming".
News source: www.news24.co.za
Posted by: www.SouthAfrica-CarHire.com
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