A Maple Ridge cab driver is in hospital with a cracked jaw, eight shattered teeth, stitches in his face and a swollen eye following a road rage incident last Sunday.
“I never thought it… could have happened to anyone,” he said.
The cab driver, who is not being identified due to concerns over his safety, was crossing the Golden Ears Bridge when he says he encountered a driver erratically swerving across all three lanes. He honked his horn, more to let the driver know he was there than out of frustration.
The truck driver stopped on the bridge deck, boxing in the cab.
The cabbie said the driver told him, “I am going to kill you today.”
“He went back to his truck, from the back of his truck he took something — a metal rod, a crowbar or something — came back with it, in less than a few seconds, broke the window and … [twice] attacked my face.”
The driver then fled in his white pickup after another car drove up.
While there are cameras in the area, there was no surveillance video from the cab and there is no detailed description of the suspect vehicle.
Coverage of road rage on Globalnews.ca:
Global News has contacted Ridge Meadows RCMP for an update on the investigation, but has yet to receive a response.
The family of the cab driver said they haven’t heard from police either.
As an independent contractor, the cabbie has no extended benefits and he isn’t clear if WorkSafeBC rules or even ICBC insurance apply to his case.
It may take a month-and-a-half before he is healthy enough to return to work.
Even then, he’s not sure he wants to get back behind the wheel.