Another man bashed in Tauranga road rage attack

A man bashed in an unprovoked road-rage attack in Tauranga yesterday is angry other motorists looked on but failed to help him.

In the second such attack in two months, Victor Hutchins, aged 50, was smacked in the face by a motorist while seatbelted in his car in the central city, the Bay of Plenty Times reported today.

Police have labelled the attack "unprovoked, vicious and cowardly". It follows a savage attack by a baton-wielding motorist on a Tauranga teenager in December.

Mr Hutchins told the newspaper he was driving along Elizabeth St towards town about 10.50am, intending to turn right into Cameron Rd.

But before he had the chance a vehicle overtook him on the inside, pulled up in front and stopped.

The driver leapt from the car and swore at Mr Hutchins, before punching him in the face through the window while he was seatbelted and defenceless.

"Obviously, I must have upset him. He was in an 80km/h limit zone and he wanted to go faster obviously," said Mr Hutchins, a road sealing manager.

Several motorists watched the drama unfold but did nothing.

Mr Hutchins asked one woman to note the attacker's car's registration but she drove off without any attempt to do so.

"I asked her because I was still kind of dazed and she just drove off and two or three other vehicles drove off as well."

What the attacker didn't realise was that his words were caught on Mr Hutchins' cellphone voicemail as he was just leaving a message at the time.

"So there'll be no question about what was said," he said.

Mr Hutchins went home and his wife cleaned him up.

Mr Hutchins was feeling okay but said his wife was "pretty upset".

He told the newspaper he didn't expect witnesses to interfere during the attack yesterday but said "a little help wouldn't have gone astray".

The attacker is described as a male Maori of about 30 years, with a shaven head and tattoos on both arms driving a distinctive early-model, probably 1980s, pale yellow Mercedes Benz.

Acting Senior Sergeant Darryl Brazier said he was disgusted by the attack and the public's failure to help out.

In the December road rage case, Darryn Horton, of Tauranga's Cambridge Heights, admitted in Tauranga Court that he bashed Bay man Jonathan Harris. The judge said it was likely Horton would go to jail.

- NZPA