Wellington road rage: 81 year old brutally beaten

An 81-year-old man says he was punched in the face by a young man in a fit of road rage off the Kapiti coast.

The Waikato man, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, says he wants to thank two teachers from Otaki School who rushed to help him after he was beaten Wednesday morning.

The grandfather said that he and his partner had spent the previous night at a motel in Otaki.

However, they found it noisy and went to find another one on a quieter stretch of road.

While looking for one on Tasman Rd, the man said he was not traveling faster than 10 km / h on the left side of the road when a car pulled up behind him.

“He blew the horn, so I played again.

“Then he stopped in front of me, blocked the road and started abusing me.”

The former truck driver admits there was a colorful language between the two.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you, get in your car and go.’ And he kept going and then he hit me out the window.

“There was blood everywhere, it broke the gums of my false teeth.”

He said they hit him so hard that he was partly thrown into his partner’s lap. He and his partner were in shock.

The man took his foot off the brake after being punched, and his car inched toward the rear of his attacker’s car.

He said two teachers missed the punch “for about 2 seconds” while walking down the street, but saw him covered in blood.

“I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’ And the people who were there, I really want to thank them, they were teachers from the Otaki school.

“They were unbelievably wonderful. I didn’t call the police, they called the police for me.”

His attacker, who also had another person in the car, left.

Fortunately, one of the teachers took a photo of the man’s red Mitsubishi Evo.

He said the police told him that the other man had filed a complaint about him; claiming the 81-year-old man had pushed him toward the window and scratched his neck.

“But he hadn’t even touched it, never laid a finger on it.”

The man’s partner had to drive the couple home to Waikato.

He went to a medical center when the couple got home.

In all his years driving trucks, it was the first time he had been involved in, or even saw, road rage.

“But now I can move my jaw, so I can at least eat a cake.”

He said the swelling on his face had decreased considerably since last week.

The man’s family was angry about the attack.

“You couldn’t print what my son said,” the victim said.

The attack also angered people after it was posted on social media.

“The Bloudy [sic] cowards picking on an old man. Respect your elders, “said one.

Another said, “Oh no, that’s beyond horrible. I hope the criminal was caught and locked up!”

Another said: “If someone is capable of doing something like this, what else is he capable of? I hope they catch the cocoon and treat it. For the poor man, I hope you do not lose faith in people and I hope you have a great Christmas (difficult as it is) “.

The man said he was not going to let the attack upset his Christmas and that he looked forward to a calm and relaxing day tomorrow.

A police spokesman said they were investigating.