Local

Man charged after road rage incident in Hempfield Township

HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A Westmoreland County man is facing charges of aggravated assault by vehicle after state police say he hit a driver’s car with a tire iron and allegedly dragged another man with his SUV Friday morning near a busy shopping plaza.

“I have a broken nose in three places, fractured cheekbone, 12 stitches across the head, sprained wrist and then my elbow’s all messed up,” Steve Chaffee said.

Steven Chaffee is left with broken bones, bruises, and road rash over his face and arms after he said he witnessed a road rage accident at the intersection right behind the Hempfield Township Walmart.

“I saw this guy come through the intersection… and run it, then he decided to back up into this older couple behind him,” Chaffee explained.

Chaffee was watching it unfold from the parking lot behind Walmart.

After the initial accident, police said Derek Walters struck the other driver’s car with a tire iron.

It caused hundreds of dollars in damage, then Walters took off.

Chaffee said he went and checked on the older couple in the car to see if they were okay, just as Walters pulled back into the parking lot.

“I was standing there telling the old guy to get his plate number so we have it, he snuck around me and [got] back into his vehicle, threw it in reverse, backed up into me, throwing me off to the side of his vehicle,” Chaffee explained.

Chaffee said he regained his balance and tried to stop Walters from leaving, again, by grabbing onto his door frame.

“Then he took off and drug me 12 feet and opened his door and threw me off another 10 feet,” Chaffee said.

Walters drove away, but troopers caught up with him in the nearby Sam’s Club parking lot 20 minutes later.

Chaffee says it’s his instinct to jump in and help, but this has him reconsidering.

“It gives me second thoughts not knowing if somebody’s going to come back like this guy did. He could’ve had a gun, it could’ve been a lot worse. So I have second thoughts.”

Chaffee will be off work for a while until he is cleared by doctors.

There is a woman who stopped to help him while he waited for paramedics, he said he would like to know who she is so

he can thank her.

Walters told Channel 11 he did not have a comment and he is working on getting an attorney.

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