Woman records Asheville road rage incident that left her rattled
By Taylor Stewart
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ASHVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — A viral video on Facebook is now at the center of the latest road rage investigation in Asheville. The video captures the tail end of a Monday morning encounter on Bruce Road in West Asheville. The 24-second recording shows a man getting out of a red Hyundai hatchback and flipping both middle fingers. The unidentified driver then leaned back into his vehicle, grabbed four eggs and hurled them at the windshield of the car behind him.
Lee Warren said she recorded the incident after it became clear the driver might become aggressive.
“This person came up really close behind me and nearly hit me, and I slammed on my brakes to give him the signal to back off. He just went nuts. I could see him in the rearview mirror, just screaming, swearing and gesturing,” Warren said.
Warren shared the video on Facebook and turned it over to the police. She said she was shaken and rattled by the ordeal but pleasantly surprised by how supportive the Facebook community has been in condemning this wave of aggression.
Warren said some commenters shared concerns she had not considered at the time.
“Some people have since said, ‘What if he was getting a gun?’ I don’t know, it didn’t cross my mind,” Warren said.
Less than two months ago, a man was shot and killed in a road rage pursuit on Smokey Park Highway in West Asheville. According to Asheville police reports, it’s one of at least two known road rage incidents that involved the use of a firearm in 2021.
In fact, heated encounters turning violent is a trend department data shows is rising.
In 2019, APD responded to 18 incidents that involved tension between two drivers that increased to the level of criminal activity. The department tracked 21 road rage-related incidents in 2020. So far, the department’s investigated 13 incidents in 2021, marking the highest number of road rage incidents this early in the year compared to the two years prior.
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