They say the yellow Monte Carlo he rear-ended was attempting a left turn from the right lane of the busy highway. But cops say the 30-year-old man from Massapequa simply lost his mind.
"I was scared for her life," the victim's mom, Gina Ricciardi said. "I'm on the other phone hearing what's going on, and I cant get to her quick enough."
After the crash, the 20-year-old woman who tried to make the illegal turn called her mom, who was on the phone when she says the other driver flew into a rage.
"He opened her car door and tried to pull her out," Ricciardi said. "Told her he was gonna f-ing kill her."
"At first, I didn't know if he was trying to help the person in the car," eyewitness Steve Goldfarb said. "Before it registered that he was attacking her car."
From the car dealership across the street, Goldfarb watched the man use a tire iron to bash in the woman's rear window. He quickly jumped in front of the man and calmed him down.
"We were like face to face," Goldfarb said. "He was pissed off because he said it was her fault the accident happened, that she stopped in the middle of the road."
Police have yet to formally identify the driver, but plan on charging him with menacing, criminal mischief, weapons possession and possibly driving while impaired. The victim, as well as a passenger in the suspect's car, were taken to a hospital for injuries relating to the crash.
