Bottles thrown from car and man punched during road-rage incident in Auckland’s Flat Bush

A man was punched in the face and bottles were thrown from a car during a Christmas Day road-rage attack in Auckland’s Flat Bush.

Natalie was travelling with her husband and their 4-year-old child when the incident happened at about 2pm.

The family were on their way home when a vehicle overtook them, as well as the car in front, at a merging point on the road.

“It was pretty fast, so it felt dangerous and that’s why we slowed down to let him go on,” Natalie said.

She said the driver who had been overtaken became enraged.

“He was throwing things at the car in front that overtook him. He was throwing a lot of bottles and cups.”

Dramatic dashcam footage has captured a scary Christmas Day road-rage incident in Flat Bush. Photo / Still from supplied video

Video footage also shows the angry driver unsuccessfully trying to overtake the car and narrowly missing an oncoming vehicle.

“Initially when he threw a takeaway cup out, like a fast food takeaway cup, we thought, ‘Okay, something’s starting up’,” Natalie said.

“But we didn’t know how severe it would be.”

When they reached Murphys Rd, the annoyed driver finally managed to overtake the car but came to an immediate stop in front of it.

He got out of his vehicle, walked towards the other car and punched the other driver in the face, Natalie said.

“We were quite scared because we didn’t know if we should interfere or not because they seemed really aggressive, from the way he punched him.

“It was quite freaky and we’ve got a child so we didn’t want to get ourselves involved.”

The man who was punched then became angry, Natalie said.

“He drove his car forward to knock the other car that was blocking him ... after hitting the front car, he reversed out and overtook him then pulled over to the side of the road.”

Traffic that had backed up behind the pair could then pass.

Natalie and her family returned home. They assumed one of the drivers had contacted the police because they saw him take out his phone as if to make a call.

However, a police spokesperson told the Herald they were not aware of any reports about the incident at this stage.

Natalie wanted to highlight the drivers’ behaviour because it had caused “a lot of disruption and fear” for other motorists.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.