Man watches road rage driver throw his mother into oncoming traffic lanes

By Sharon Danquah

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    HERMITAGE, Tennessee (WSMV) — The family of a nearly 80-year-old woman hospitalized during road rage incident in Hermitage on March 12 is now speaking out.

Mark Magner said he watched in awe as a man got out of his car, picked up his elderly mother and threw her across nearly two lanes of traffic. It was all while his mother was battling something else.

“He just snapped, picked her up and threw her,” Magner said.

A bone-chilling scene Magner said he’ll never forget.

“Panic and fear, to hear your mother cry for help…my main thought was to go to her,” Magner said.

Magner said it all started minutes after he was following his mother to her home Sunday afternoon.

“My mother slowed down before the railroad tracks down the road and I was following her. We were in two separate cars and a guy ran up on the back of me like he was going to rear-end me,” Magner said.

While confused Magner said he decided to ignore it, but then the driver did something else.

“Next thing I know he’s lying on his horn and at about the time we got almost up here to this traffic light he started weaving over to my lane trying to side-swipe me,” Magner said.

Seconds after Mark said his heart started to race, he realized the pounding wasn’t just in his chest, that driver had gotten out of his car and started pounding on Magner’s car window with a flashlight.

“I ended up stopping here in the turn lane and getting out and confronting him and it escalated from there, it was a verbal argument,” Magner said.

That’s until someone else stepped in.

“My mother got out of her car, she saw what was going on and was trying to de-escalate it,” Magner said.

At that moment, Magner said the man grabbed his mother by the arms and threw her.

“The next thing I know I hear my mother cry help me and I turn around and there she was laying in the middle of the road, luckily that light was red because if cars were coming through, she would have probably gotten hit,” Magner said.

When multiple drivers jumped out to call for help, Mark said the driver started to speed off, but not before he could grab a picture of his license plate, later leading police to an arrest and charge of aggravated assault.

“It’s not normal to get that angry,” Magner said.

Doctors said Mark’s mother hit her head on the pavement causing internal bleeding, It’s her second head injury and surgery in 4 months.

“She actually had a really bad fall in Arizona when she was on vacation and had to have brain surgery here back in October, so she wasn’t fully healed from that,” Magner said.

Now as she fights for her life in Skyline Medical’s ICU, Magner said he’s scared for other drivers.

“This road rage If you’re in that big of a hurry leave home earlier there is just no reason for this kind of thing,” Magner said.

Magner said he’s now just praying for his mother’s recovery.

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