Police: Road Rage Incident Leads to Ugly Confrontation

Mauldin and Simpsonville Police were dispatched last week after a road rage incident between two men escalated into a personal confrontation, a Mauldin police report said.

Police from both departments were called to the Taco Bell on Fairview Road in Simpsonville to investigate the incident, which began when a driver allegedly pulled out of Lexington Place Apartments in Mauldin in front of another driver nearly causing a collision, the report said.

The driver, a Simpsonville man, then began honking and flipping a middle finger at the driver who pulled out as both traveled down Bethel Road, the report said. The flipped-off driver eventually stopped and got out of his vehicle to angrily confront the other driver with vulgar and hostile language, the report said. The two men began arguing back and forth, and the driver who had been flipped off ordered the other driver out of his car to fight, the report said.

The driver refused and promptly sped off, accidentally striking the other man in the shoulder with his car's side mirror with enough force to knock it off the car, the report said. The stricken man then allegedly picked up the mirror and threw at it the fleeing driver's window, cracking it, the report said.

Th stricken man then got back into his car and the two continued to pursue each other, eventually winding up in the Taco Bell parking lot where the police were contacted, the report said.

After speaking with police and cooling off, both men agreed not to pursue charges, though the driver whose car received damage demanded that the other driver pay for the damage to his car, which he agreed to do after police explained that he had become the aggressor and was at fault for being hit and causing the damage, the report said.