Footage has emerged showing the moment a motorist slapped a young woman in the face so hard that she had to be hospitalised in a shocking road rage incident.
The footage, which was captured by CCTV cameras in the Ukrainian city of Zmiiv, shows the man manoeuvring his Mercedes as two young women attempt to cross a zebra crossing.
Just as they step onto the crossing, the car continues its journey and refuses to let the women go, leading one of the women to make a gesture towards the car window.
You can watch what happens next below:
Shortly after the woman makes the gesture, the footage shows the man pulling his car over before he gets out and hits the woman in the face, knocking her to the ground. He then gets back inside his vehicle and drives off.
The victim was later identified as 21-year-old Lesya Priceless, who said that while she did make a gesture, it was simply a way to tell the driver to keep driving after he had acted angrily towards them.
The 21-year-old explained:
My friend and I were going to cross over and the driver was leaving the parking lot at the same time. He decided that we had stopped incorrectly, began to honk and was really angry.
I wasn’t trying to be rude and was just indicating that he should drive through. But then the man stopped, got out of the car and hit me on the head.
Lesya confirmed she had ended up in hospital as a result of the assault, suffering with a haematoma on her head and cuts and scratches from the fall.
According to the police, a criminal investigation was opened under Article 125 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (minor bodily harm). The case has since been handed to prosecutors after the suspect was identified as 46-year-old Sergei Suzy.
Lesya said that, although Suzy told the court he pleaded partially guilty and that he ‘didn’t want to make a fuss,’ the driver had not tried to contact her at all since the incident.
The 21-year-old said:
He said he wants to resolve the issue amicably, but he didn’t come and see me either before or after he was caught.
Suzy has previous convictions for petty hooliganism and fraud relating to the illegal use of property.
Road rage is all too common.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).