Road Rage Incident Leaves Brick Woman Rattled (Video)

BRICK, NJ — We've all been in a traffic dispute over who had the right of way. Maybe you yelled at the other driver. Maybe you honked or gave them a single-finger salute.

In some cases, however, a road rage incident can escalate into something scary. That's what Tori Barden says happened Wednesday. As she was driving to work, a man got out of his vehicle and screamed at her for supposedly cutting him off. She captured the rant on video.

"This was road rage to the max," Barden said.

The Brick resident was headed to her job in Lawrenceville shortly before 7 a.m. when the incident occurred where Herbertsville and Squankum-Allenwood roads come together in Howell. It's a tricky intersection. You have to pull up to look for oncoming traffic because the roads merge at a tight angle, as seen below.

Barden said she was idling at the intersection by the scrapyard, waiting for cars to go by, when a red Volkswagen pulled up.

"I pulled out as the cars were past us, and he almost hit me," Barden said Thursday. Barden continued on her way, but for the next mile or more he kept trying to pass her and was yelling.

Herbertsville Road is a single lane in each direction, with a double yellow line separating the lanes.

When Barden reached the intersection of Herbertsville and Lakewood-Farmingdale roads, that's when things really escalated.

"I'm sitting at the red light, and he was pushing my car with his," she said, adding that he did so several times. "That's when I took my camera out."

She zoomed in to get a picture of his license plate. That's when the man appeared at her car door, screaming on the other side of her closed window.

In the video, he can be heard yelling that Barden cut him off and insisting that there is a yield sign at the intersection (there is not). Barden tells him there is no yield and that he cut her off. The man tells her he is a Marine and has a disability that makes him unable to turn his head to the right. His screaming continues until he finally tells her to "F-- off," and walks away.

"He left red paint all over my bumper," said Barden, who planned to file a citizen's complaint with the Howell Township Police Department Thursday.

"I work in construction," she said. "I work around people who get angry all day long. He was mad because I just didn't let him go around me when I was waiting at a stop sign."

The incident has given her pause.

"The man was so crazy, I'm not even driving the same car today," she said.

The video is below. Warning: it contains foul language.

Photo via Tori Barden's video, used with permission.