Motorists terrorised during vicious axe incident and car hijacking in Whittlesea

MOTORISTS in Melbourne’s north have been left terrorised by a spate of road rage incidents, including a man wielding an axe.

DRIVERS have been left plagued with fear following a spate of road rage attacks in Whittlesea.

During one attack an axe-wielding man threatened a driver in front of passing cars, and in another a woman was spat on before her car was hijacked.

Road policing command Sergeant Julie-Anne Newman slammed the recent alarming incidents as “totally unacceptable” and warned those responsible would be prosecuted and could face serious charges.

Crime Statistics Agency data showed nine road confrontation incidents were reported in Whittlesea between April 2017 and March 2018.

Inner Melbourne, which includes the CBD, had 28 incidents in the same period, the most for metropolitan Melbourne.

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Incidents to have terrorised Whittlesea motorists in the past two months include a 53-year-old woman who was spat on and had her car driven a short distance by an assailant on June 14 on Plenty Rd between Mernda and Mill Park.

Masked figures hijacked a car in Bundoora on July 12 and left a 25-year-old student bloodied and burned after a taser-type device was used on him during the 1am armed robbery.

And there was a daylight road-rage incident in Mernda on July 13 where a man was threatened with an axe in front of other motorists at the intersection of Bridge Inn and Plenty roads.

The attacks come as almost 80 per cent of 642 respondents in a Leader poll said there was a road-rage problem in Whittlesea.

A family member of a Whittlesea road-rage victim said they were “shocked and devastated” by the attack on their relative.

“Since the incident unfortunately the victim hasn’t worked up the courage to drive back there, she’s still traumatised. Everyone is in a rush to get from A to B and gone are the days of feeling safe in your own neighbourhood.”