Police have called for witnesses to help find those responsible for a road rage bashing that left a driver unconscious by the side of the Western Ring Road.
Peter Bennett needed 16 staples to the head and suffered dizzy spells after the attack, which police described as ‘‘fairly vicious’’ for a minor encounter.
Detective Senior Constable Simon Garner of Brimbank CIU said Mr Bennett was driving his Mitsubishi Triton ute inbound on the Ring Road at West Sunshine between Ballarat Road and Boundary Road about 12.30pm last Thursday when a dark Hyundai Excel cut him off.
Mr Bennett told 3AW that he slammed on the brakes and flashed his lights at the driver. The driver then forced Mr Bennett to pull over on the side of the road by braking and boxing him in.
‘‘I got out of the car to talk to him and I put my hands up in the air to show I was no threat but he and his passenger just came at me,’’ Mr Bennett said.
‘‘He just had that look in his eye and was yelling obscenities. I knew I was in trouble.’’
Mr Bennett was knocked to the ground and bashed unconscious. The perpetrators drove off and Mr Bennett regained consciousness, got up and drove himself 3km to a service station, collapsed out of his car with blood pouring down his face and a customer called an ambulance.
He was taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital with injuries to the hand and face.
‘‘It was just absolutely brutal and horrendous,’’ he said.
Detective Garner said the victim was ‘‘left in a pretty dangerous situation’’ given it was a busy stretch of the Ring Road.
He said the Hyundai driver’s extreme reaction to a ‘‘minor’’ incident was of ‘‘of concern’’.
‘‘It didn’t seem to have been something that needed to get out of control the way it did. But it obviously has and that’s a concern, that something like that can happen, in such, as what appeared to be, a trivial matter’’.
Detective Garner said the Hyundai driver was 172-175cm tall, of thin to medium build, with short dark hair and wearing dark clothing.
Although road rage happened daily, this was a violent and ‘‘fairly vicious’’ attack. He advised drivers facing such aggression not to pull over, not to get out of their car, and to ‘‘try and go to a public area’’ for help.
He said there was no CCTV footage but there would have been many cars around during the incident, ‘‘so somebody hopefully saw something and can come forward, that would be fantastic’’.
Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
