Road-rage attack leaves 'slow' driver with life-changing injuries
A motorist attacked another driver in an outburst of road rage for driving ‘too slowly’ leaving him with life-changing injuries, a court heard.
His victim was forced to give up his job and move house because of the injuries he suffered in the assault on a Walsall road, the jury was told.
Dance teacher Navarone Price had been tailgating a Nissan Micra on Primley Avenue, on the Alumwell estate, in June 2015, a jury heard.
As he ‘roared past’, the Nissan driver allegedly made a rude hand gesture which infuriated Price, who slammed on his brakes in front of the victim’s car, forcing him to make an emergency stop, said Mr Edward Soulsby, prosecuting at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
The two men squared up to each other, with 25-year-old Price threatening to ‘box his head in’.
As an unidentified passer-by joined in the row, Price kicked the Nissan and dented the bonnet.
The victim, aged 55, tried to get the keys from Price’s Renault Clio to prevent him from leaving the scene but Price pushed him from behind causing him to fall.
The victim’s jumper was then pulled over his head and he was dragged along the road and kicked by both men as he lay in the road.
Price, of Haydn Sanders Square, Caldmore, drove off and the other attacker also fled the scene but the defendant was traced by his car registration number.
He was convicted by a jury of grievous bodily harm and criminal damage following a three-day trial after pleading not guilty to the charges.
His victim, who had been shopping with his daughter that day, Father’s Day, had surgery for torn tendons in both knees.
He has been forced to give up his job as a lorry driver because he can no longer climb into the cab.
He also had to sell his house and move into a flat as he could not negotiate the stairs.
Mr Andrew Wilkins, defending, said although he had a shoplifting conviction, Price had kept out of trouble for eight years.
He was a part-time carer to his mother and also gave voluntary dance lessons to disadvantaged children.
Judge Amjad Nawaz sentenced Price to a 21-month jail term suspended for two years and told him to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.
He must pay £2,000 compensation.
