A 42-year-old Toronto suspect is facing charges after he allegedly drove down a highway with a man clinging onto the hood of his car.
“When you’re driving with someone holding onto the side of your car, it’s just crazy,” said Sgt. Kerry Schmidt, a spokesperson for OPP’s highway safety division. He called it the most aggressive driving he’d ever seen.
“There’s no place for that in our society. I don’t know what he was thinking,” he said.
Dashcam footage from commuter Daniel Yang caught the incident and shows a man on the hood of a vehicle while it travels down Highway 404. The victim, Dave Yeomans, was not hurt.
The incident stemmed from a dispute between two drivers who attempted to merge at the same time, Schmidt said.
According to earlier reports, the suspect had come out of the vehicle and allegedly threw a tool box towards Yeomans. The latter got out of his car, stepped in front of the other car to take pictures of the suspect’s licence plate.
“And it turns from a bit of horn honking, to gestures, to street justice and ends up with a driver getting run at by another car,” Schmidt said. “He jumps on the hood and holds on tight and starts going down the highway… and suddenly he’s going for a ride.”
Schmidt added that despite only going about one and a half kilometers on the highway, it was extremely dangerous and “it could have been far worse.”
“Had he fallen off or slipped out he would have been run over by that car or any other car beside him. That would have been unbelievable,” Schmidt said.
“Everyone is trying to get to work or home or wherever and all have an agenda and all want to merge or drive at their own pace and a little bit of courtesy, decency and respect does a long way in de-escalating these kind of things.”
OPP have charged Edward Ennis, from Scarborough, Ont., with dangerous driving and assault with a weapon.
