The New Zealand Herald

Road-rage driver reversed at us at 50km/h — woman

- George Block

A man allegedly high on drugs reversed at 50km/h down a Dunedin street as he pursued another vehicle in an apparent road-rage incident yesterday.

The driver remains at large. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a woman said she was in the vehicle subject to the man’s rage. She said the incident began shortly after 11am in Columba Ave, Calton Hill.

As she travelled down the narrow street in a ute, accompanie­d by her fiancee and another person, the man’s red Mazda Familia hatchback approached their vehicle “in the middle of the road,” she said.

When the man pulled alongside their ute he stopped. Then he reversed down the street at speeds of up to 50km/h in an apparent backwards pursuit.

He spun his vehicle around and continued following their car on to the Southern Motorway, heading north. As both vehicles reached Lookout Point, the man stopped his vehicle and got out.

He allegedly repeatedly punched the ute the woman was in. The group drove off, prompting the man to return to his Mazda and continue following.

The man had yelled out the win- dow, waving a tyre lever, she said.

The woman said he appeared to be “high as a kite”.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” She began remonstrat­ing with the man from the window of the ute.

“I wasn’t having that. I said, ‘I’m calling the police. You’re a psycho’.”

At that point the man drove off, she said.

Police said the driver had fled by the time they arrived.

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