Police have released shocking footage of the moment a road rage driver dangerously undertook a lorry before narrowly avoiding a horror crash by slamming on his brakes.
Harvey Schofield, 52, was caught on a HGV driver’s dash-cam veering into the nearside lane of the M56 near Chester to get past a tipper truck on March 30 last year.
Heart-stopping footage shows the angry motorist then pulling back out in front of the lorry before shaking his fist at the driver and inexplicably slamming on his brakes.
Last Thursday (22/2) Schofield was handed a 12 week prison sentence, suspended for a year after being found guilty of dangerous driving at Chester Magistrates’ Court.
He was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, fined £620, disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to take an extended driving test.
The HGV driver said in a statement he had been flashing his lights at the tipper to indicate it was clear to pull into lane one before Schofield’s Audi A7 hurtled into view.
The tipper driver, who has been driving lorries for 45 years, said in his own statement: “It could have been a completely different story if I hadn’t braked so quickly.
“I did think to myself ‘you nutter.'”
The court heard Schofield, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, was a field engineer with an unblemished record and the manoeuvre had been “23 seconds of stupidity”.
Cheshire Police said the case was a first for the force where a motorist has been prosecuted for dangerous driving as a result of dashcam footage.
PC Liz Thompson, from the Serious and Complex Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Firstly I would like to thank the member of the public who submitted the footage, without their support this prosecution would not have been possible.
“The footage clearly showed that Schofield deliberately undertook the tipper truck, then for no apparent reason deliberately pulled out into the path of the vehicle and intentionally slammed on his brakes.
“Thankfully the driver of the truck was able to stop his vehicle in time, and did not collide with Schofield’s car.
“However, I have no doubt that had it not been for the drivers quick-thinking actions, there could have been a serious collision, and the lives of innocent motorists could have been put at risk.”
David Keane, police and crime commissioner for Cheshire, added: “Dashcam footage is being used more and more by police to crack down on bad driving and help save lives.
“It is one of the innovative solutions police can use to prosecute those who are driving dangerously to ensure their actions don’t lead to serious injury or loss of life in the future.
“I would encourage residents of Cheshire, who have captured evidence of people committing traffic offences, to submit it to Cheshire Constabulary to help reduce the number of serious incidents on our roads.”
