MAITLAND LOCAL COURT
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Road rage is a reality on Maitland roads with one man placed on a good behaviour bond for punching another driver’s vehicle.
Paul Christopher O’Neill, of Ruby Close, Tarro, pleaded guilty to damaging a car on May 13 this year.
O’Neill, 45, was driving behind the vehicle in an East Maitland car park about 10.30am.
As the woman began to drive up a ramp she heard a loud and prolonged blast from a car horn.
She turned and saw O’Neill yelling at her.
The woman stuck up her middle finger at him and he parked near her, got out of his car and said: “Why don’t you take ya time.”
He punched the driver side window then turned and punched a panel near the vehicle’s fuel cap causing a dint before driving away.
The female driver and her mother got out of the car and were approached by seven people who had seen the incident.
“Road rage is what we call this,” magistrate Sharron Crews said.
“Whatever she was doing you had no right to get out of the vehicle and punch the driver’s side window.
“These things are just more and more common; we know people are frustrated and unhappy with things in their lives, but it doesn’t give you the right to take it out on other people.”
O’Neill was placed on a six-month good behaviour bond.