In a bizarre road rage incident, a couple was on a routine walk with their dog in Los Angeles when an unhinged driver went onto the curb and tried to run them over. The couple says they were at the corner of an intersection when they waved at a man in an orange car to go through, but the driver interpreted the wave as them not speaking English and suddenly escalated the situation.
Police are still looking for the driver and his orange Mitsubishi
On August 12 at around 6:30 p.m., Ben Hogan and his fiancée Celine were out on a walk with their dachshund, Olive, in Mid-Wilshire and stopped at a corner near Harold Henry Park, as reported by KTLA.
Since they were on their phones, the couple made a wave at the male driver of a metallic orange 2019 Mitsubishi Mirage so that he could pass through the intersection without having to wait for them.
However, the man did not take that gesture as a courtesy and flew into a rage. “And then we hear him say, ‘What, you don’t speak f-ing English?'” Celine recalled in an on-camera interview.
Ben said, “At that point, we put the phone down and said ‘Hey, move along.'”
Footage from a surveillance camera and a dashcam from an Uber driver that was behind the orange vehicle at the time shows the man turning the car sharply to the left and accelerating toward the couple. The Mitsubishi went over the curb and nearly ran them over if it weren’t for some quick thinking.
Ben pulled his dog out of the way to the left while Celine ran past the line of thick trees along the edge of the park. Unable to reach her through the trees, the driver veered out of the grass and onto the street, going back to the intersection.
“He came back to the stop sign,” Ben recounted, “and at that point he said, like, ‘You guys are f-ing scared now, right?”
According to FOX LA, the Mitsubishi has the Colorado license plate EWUW29. It reports that a similar car was involved in another road rage incident in Arizona back in April that involved a 49-year-old man who did not appear for his arraignment and has a warrant out for his arrest. However, it has not been confirmed whether the driver is connected to this case.
The Los Angeles Police Department is continuing its investigation into the incident and is actively searching for the driver.
