ANCHORAGE – What the police call a road rage incident was captured on at least two helmet cameras. The road rage happened between a truck and a large group of bikers headed to Saturday’s annual Bike Blessing in downtown Anchorage.
Two riders recorded the incident and their videos have sparked remarkable outrage across social media sites.
As we can see in the videos, the truck seems to be making dangerous moves, coming close to nearly 100 motorcycles, while at other times you can see it leaving the main roadway to go around the group.
“I look back, and that’s when I see this truck just chasing him up the shoulder. He finally gets past us and that was pretty much the end of it, and then we looked farther forward. Our buddy Thomas is on his cruiser up in front of us, and this guy just gets up behind him and swerves and almost overcorrects and almost takes him out.” – Adam Pierce, one of the bikers who filmed the whole film, said.
Some of the motorcyclists were speeding during the incident, trying to keep up with the truck while going 65 mph or faster. The group caught up with the truck at a red light and a confrontation between a motorcyclist and the truck’s driver ensued. In one video, the driver can be seen grabbing the motorcyclist as he stands outside the truck with his hands at his side, yelling. Other motorcyclists pulled them apart and the truck sped off through the red light.
Renee Oistad, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department, said the truck driver initially called them after the incident about a broken side mirror he claimed was damaged by the group, but they have not been able to get ahold of him since the videos were released. They stated none of the motorcyclists have contacted them about the truck. However, the videos have been viewed thousands of times and police said someone posted an address believed to be the home of the truck driver.
“We now have somebody who has taken it upon themselves to find an address that they believe this truck driver lives at and posted it online and have called for people to go to his home and retaliate,” Oistad said. “In this case, that address is wrong. Police have made contact with the individuals who live at that home and have confirmed the truck driver is not currently living there and hasn’t been at that address for several weeks. The people who do live at that house are completely uninvolved in the road rage incident and now fear for their own safety due to a situation they were not a part of.”
Oistad said police are urging the public to leave the homeowners alone.
“You’re taking a traffic violation and potentially changing it into a criminal act,” she said.
Pierce said “cooler heads did not prevail” in this situation, which he called potentially life threatening.
“It’s terrifying because if you’re driving in your car and somebody’s texting and then they rear end your car — ya, you’re gonna be a little upset and you’re gonna have to pay some money in damages,” he said. “But if you rear end one of us, it could be game over. We’re fathers, we’re sons, we’re daughters, you know, we’re somebody’s kids, we’re somone’s parents, and you could end us because you’re what, in a hurry? We were doing the speed limit.”
Any drivers who see or are confronted by a dangerous driver are encouraged to call police at 786-8900 to report them as a REDDI (Report Every Dangerous Driver Immediately) vehicle.
(Source:ktva)
