Crash was ‘inevitable’ in alleged road rage incident – court told

Giving evidence during his trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Derek Parker claimed he had been “cut up” by Aziz Pekal, who is also accused of dangerous driving, at the Copdock interchange.

He claimed that shortly afterwards Pekal, who was driving a Mazda people carrier, had pulled in front of him and braked causing his Astra to scrape the rear bumper of the people carrier.

He claimed the people carrier had then “side-swiped” his car and he had turned towards the people carrier to avoid going off the road resulting in the people carrier ending up against the central crash barrier.

Parker, 70, of Sandpiper Road, Ipswich, and Pekal, 34, of Tacket Street, Ipswich, have both denied dangerous driving on October 26, 2016.

Giving evidence, Pekal, who had his 16-month-old daughter and his pregnant wife in the car at the time of the alleged incident, denied “cutting-up” Parker and claimed he had indicated before changing lanes.

He denied braking sharply when the people carrier was in front of the Astra and claimed Parker had driven into him and pushed his vehicle into the crash barrier.

“This incident started when Mr Pekal suddenly pulled out of his lane in front of Mr Parker’s car and cut-up Mr Parker,” alleged Matthew Sorel-Cameron, prosecuting.

“The two cars were now both in the same lane and having been cut up by Mr Pekal, Mr Parker undercut Mr Pekal and got in front of him.

“Mr Pekal then did the same to him.”

A police officer who witnessed the incident described both drivers as driving aggressively and felt that a collision between the two cars was “inevitable.”

At one stage while the cars were side by side they had “swiped” into each other and the Mazda driven by Mr Pekal ended up squashed against the central reservation crash barrier by Parker’s Astra, alleged Mr Sorel-Cameron.

“It was a short lived incident of road rage during which they both drove aggressively,” he claimed.

The trial continues.