A violent encounter between two irate drivers left one man badly injured and another with a court date after an apparent case of road rage of Thursday afternoon.
Police say one driver was tailgating the other on Hammonds Plains Road when tempers flared and both cars turned off into the parking lot of the Upper Tantallon Sobeys.
That’s when someone called 911.
“I came around the front of my car and I noticed a gentleman lying in the roadway,” said Daralynne Lewis, who came upon the men seconds after the altercation.
“There was another gentleman standing there. I asked him what happened and he said ‘Buddy got out of his car and attacked me so I threw him into the ground’,” she said.
According to Lewis, the man standing was “a very big guy” and the man on the ground was much smaller, badly injured and moaning.
“Bleeding from his nose. Having convulsive-like tremors. The side of his face was all swollen. His right eye was swollen shut. He was not coherent,” she said.
RCMP said the injured man, a 29-year-old Lower Sackville resident, was taken to hospital.
A 28-year-old Dartmouth man was arrested at the scene, later released, and is scheduled to appear in court.
According to Lewis, the fight took place between two buggy corrals in the grocery store parking lot.
A large blood stain was still visible at the site Friday afternoon.
Lewis said two teenage girls who witnessed the fight told her what they saw.
“The victim did approach the other gentleman and push him,” she said.
“But the other gentleman picked him up, lifted him up off the ground and head first into the pavement.”
Cpl. Greg Church of the Halifax District RCMP is warning drivers not to let road rage get the better of them.
“Don't take matters into your own hands. Contact the police and let us deal with the situation rather than confronting the other driver yourself,” he said.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jayson Baxter
