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Road rage incident involves man on tractor

DAVID COLE/[email protected] | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 8 months AGO
by DAVID COLE/[email protected]
| April 1, 2015 9:00 PM

A road-rage incident near Rathdrum Saturday afternoon left a man on an orange farm tractor shaken, according to an incident report.

The tractor driver, who is in his early 50s and is a Hayden resident, told authorities he was stopped in traffic on Garwood Road at the intersection with U.S. 95 when a white pickup truck pulling a small trailer stopped behind him.

The vehicles were held up for several minutes while a red light was extended because of a train.

Once the light turned green, the man in the truck began honking his horn due to the tractor driver's delayed response to the light change.

The tractor soon proceeded into the intersection, though the truck "laid on its horn" which lead to the tractor driver getting "flustered," according to a Kootenai County Sheriff's Office report.

When interviewed by a deputy at the scene the tractor driver's "hands were shaking and he appeared frightened," the report said.

The deputy also wrote that he "observed him start to cry three separate times as he told me what had taken place."

He also had a small dog with him in the tractor during the incident, and the "dog was shaking and whimpering as a result" of the incident, he told the deputy.

The two drivers exchanged angry hand gestures as they pulled through the intersection.

The tractor driver said the truck driver pulled in front of him and stopped, exited his vehicle, approached the tractor, grabbed the door and flung it open, shattering a window when the door smacked against a back tire.

The tractor driver said the other man threatened to assault him, but quickly left instead.

The report said the tractor driver is disabled with burns, including to the hands and face, from a commercial vehicle accident.

The driver of the truck told authorities the tractor driver's slow response at the intersection caused him to honk his horn.

He also told deputies he stopped in front of the tractor and got out of his truck because he thought the tractor driver wanted to speak with him.

He said the tractor driver flung the door open himself, shattering the window. He said he only responded by laughing out loud, then he left.

The driver of the truck admitted to deputies "to being involved in a past 'road rage' incident," the incident report said.

The sheriff's office redacted the suspect's name in the report.

Capt. Andy Boyle, of the sheriff's office, said Tuesday that the incident report was forwarded to the prosecutor's office for review for possible charges.

Boyle said he couldn't find "anything that indicated the suspect has a history of this kind of incident."

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