Terrifying footage has emerged of a drunk driver deliberately using his vehicle as a weapon to crash into another car in an unprovoked road rage attack.
Ryan Simpson, 40, pleaded guilty to several offences in the Adelaide District Court on Wednesday, including acts likely to cause serious harm and driving with a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit.
The court heard Chloe Lyons, 23, was heading to breakfast on June 6 last year around 10am when she pulled out into traffic in front of Simpson.
An enraged Simpson reversed into Ms Lyons’ car on Commercial Road at Seaford in Adelaide’s south while she waited at a set of traffic lights.
Next he sped off in his ute, performed a U-turn, and then drove on the wrong side of the road back into Ms Lyons’ SUV at about 50km an hour.
Chloe Lyons was tailgated, threatened and then rammed head-on by an out-of-control drunk driver in a savage road rage attack in Adelaide’s south last June
Ms Lyons felt like a ‘sitting duck’ as an enraged Ryan Simpson smashed head on to her SUV in the shocking road rage attack on June 6, 2021
Mr Simpson (pictured, in his white ute) also drove directly at a witness who filmed the carnage in June last year
The shocking incident left Lyons a ‘sitting duck’ as she braced for the impact while stationary – and on the phone to her father.
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The prosecutor described Simpson’s conduct as ‘outrageous, dangerous and malicious behaviour.
‘It was sheer luck that no one was seriously injured or killed,’ she said.
‘This is a serious example of road rage, and the community needs to be protected from this sort of offending.’
Additionally, Simpson drove directly at a witness filming the incident, who moved at the last second to avoid being struck by his ute.
A contrite Simpson apologised to both victims, telling the court he was ’embarrassed and disgusted’ by his behaviour.
‘If I could go back and change what I did then I would…but unfortunately I cannot,’ he said.
‘I can’t begin to imagine how badly my victims and their families felt on that morning and continue to feel after my absurd behaviour.’
Simpson was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder following the incident and was abusing alcohol at the time to mask mental health issues.
He has been remanded in custody since his arrest last June and will be sentenced in March.
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