June 4, 2021 7:00am by David Farrar

Stabbed by gang members in road rage

A motorist attacked and stabbed by gang members in an alleged road rage incident says he would have died if he hadn’t booted the door of his car open and fled.
The man was driving around Hastings on the evening of December 6 last year when he was attacked.
The assailants have not been found. The case featured on the Ten-7 televison show on Thursday night.
The unidentified victim told the show “when the knife came out, I knew straight away I would have been dead if I stayed there”.
The incident appeared to have been triggered by a minor traffic misunderstanding.
The man had been driving about 9pm along Oliphant Rd when he came across a grey Suzuki Swift.
Detective James Mason said: “There appears to have been some confusion. He was trying to let the Suzuki Swift out on to the road but changed his mind and drove around it. As he travelled back towards Hastings to pick up his partner the grey Suzuki Swift followed him”.
The victim became aware of the car following very closely. He realised he was being chased and pulled into Warren Street and parked his car. The Swift pulled alongside his car.
“The victim has identified four occupants, two of which he has confirmed are Mongrel Mob members. Three of the occupants got out and attacked the victim through his open window,” Mason said.
“While that was happening, one of our suspects ordered the others to grab a knife, which it appears they were not comfortable with doing. So this male grabbed a knife out of the car and returned and began to stab the victim through the window until he forced his way out of the vehicle and began to flee from the scene,” Mason said.

It’s incidents like this that scare me, and I am sure many others.

One generally lives your life in a way to minimise your chance of being violently attacked. You avoid areas known for violence. You don’t get into fights. You don’t take part in criminal activities. You treat people nicely. You try to deescalate conflicts.

But here you have a case where a minor misunderstanding at a roundabout leaves you with multiple stab wounds, and lucky not be be dead.

As far as I can tell from media reports, those responsible have not yet been arrested. Disgraceful.