What to Know
- Mark Fitzgerald, 37, and Richard Kamrowski, 65, have been charged in connection with the wild road rage incident on the Mass. Pike.
- State police say the chaos started after a minor side-swipe crash.
- Footage from the scene shows Kamrowski clinging to the hood of Fitzgerald's SUV for about three miles.
It's looking like the wild, caught-on-camera road rage incident on the Massachusetts Turnpike last Friday is turning into a case of "he said, he said."
Court documents show that the men charged in connection with the road rage incident had conflicting accounts of how one of them ended up on the hood of the other man's SUV.
The exclusive video obtained by NBC10 Boston shows an SUV driving about three miles with a man on the hood as the vehicle went westbound on Interstate 90 Friday afternoon. Authorities say the SUV was going up to 70 mph in stop and go traffic before another driver stopped his car and stopped the pandemonium.
The chaos was sparked after a minor side-swipe crash involving a white Infiniti SUV and a pickup truck, according to state police's arrest report.
The SUV driver, 37-year-old Ashland resident Mark Fitzgerald, told a trooper that he didn't stop or pull over to exchange information with the pickup driver, 65-year-old Richard Kamrowski. Since traffic was stop-and-go by that point Friday afternoon, Kamrowski got out of his pickup truck and walked up to the passenger side of Fitzgerald's SUV.
They "exchanged words" through the passenger side's open window, according to the trooper's report, when Kamrowski grabbed a metal water bottle off of the passenger side seat and walked in front of the SUV.
Fitzgerald then told troopers that he started to drive when Kamrowski "jumped on the hood of his SUV and smashed the windshield with the water bottle."
According to court documents, Fitzgerald told police he was afraid for his safety and hit the gas pedal with Kamrowski still on the hood of his SUV. Fitzgerald told troopers he allegedly stopped a few times to tell Kamrowski "to get off the hood and he refused to so he drove some more."
However, Kamrowski's version of events to troopers didn't line up with Fitzgerald's. In the police report, both Kamrowski and Fitzgerald said that Fitzgerald wasn't going to pull over to exchange information and that Kamrowski grabbed Fitzgerald's water bottle from the passenger seat and walked in front of the SUV, but after that, things began to diverge.
In court documents, Kamrowski claimed he asked Fitzgerald one more time to pull over, which is when the driver allegedly "pulled his SUV forward, almost striking" Kamrowski and yelling at the man to get off of the road.
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Kamrowski told troopers that Fitzgerald allegedly "drove forward more, causing him to jump onto the hood to not get run over by the SUV" and that the driver allegedly "started to drive down the highway," which was when Kamrowski claimed he smashed the water bottle into the windshield.
The 65-year-old Framingham resident told troopers that Fitzgerald would speed up and then hit the brakes fast in an attempt to dislodge him off the hood, and estimated that the SUV driver "was going about 60 to 70 mph."
Kamrowski told troopers "he thought he was going to die" before the SUV hit traffic and was boxed in by a group of cars belonging to good Samaritans trying to stop the madness on the road, which was finally halted after a man, who was licensed to carry a gun, stopped the SUV at gunpoint, forcing Fitzgerald to get out from behind the wheel.
Court documents show that a responding trooper pulled a gun on the good Samaritan with a gun and had placed him in handcuffs until bystanders told the trooper he was helping out.
Both men have entered not guilty pleas to charges stemming from the road rage case.
Fitzgerald was ordered to be held on $500 bail during his arraignment on multiple charges in Waltham District Court on Monday, including assault and battery with a dangerous vehicle and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Kamrowski was released on personal recognizance after he was arraigned on disorderly conduct and malicious damage to a motor vehicle.
