Two New England men involved in a road rage incident on the Massachusetts Turnpike appeared in court Monday.
The situation last week started with a minor car accident and quickly escalated, with 65-year-old Richard Kamrowski allegedly jumping on the hood of Mark Fitzgerald’s car and smashing his windshield with a water bottle]. Fitzgerald allegedly got up to speeds of 70 mph.
When cops arrived, both men were arrested.
Kamrowski pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct and malicious damage to a motor vehicle. He claims he had to jump on the hood to avoid being run over.
Fitzgerald pleaded not guilty to charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of a property damage accident. His driver’s license was revoked and he was released on $500 cash bail.
“If someone was attacking me, if someone smashed my windshield, had already tried to attack me from both sides of my car, I think my first thought would be, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ I think everybody reasonably acts to protect their own safety,” Fitzgerald’s attorney Michael Chinman told reporters. “I was astonished that a man would jump onto the hood of a moving car when there was, by all accounts, extremely minor contact between the cars prior to that.”
Both men have a court appearance in March and have been ordered to stay away from each other.
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