News

Athol couple’s car pushed off road in apparent road rage crash

ATHOL — An Athol couple is warning other drivers after they say their car was pushed off the road in an apparent road-rage crash Friday night.

Stacy and Joseph Schweitzer were heading home from dinner on Rte. 2 in Athol near Exit 18, around 10:30 p.m., when they say a truck began tailgating them on the single-lane stretch of highway. Stacy says she slowed down and the truck struck them the first time, and then twice more.

“I pushed on my brakes to let him know he’s following too close, and next thing I know, I told my husband, ‘He’s going to hit me,’” Stacy said. “And that’s when he hit me once. Then as I went further, he hit me again. So I went to turn into the break-down lane, and that’s when he hit the side of me and sent me off the side of the road.”

The Schweitzers’ car smashed into a barrier and nearly flipped, the front bumper falling off.

“[I’m] screaming, holding onto the brake, trying to get the car to stop,” Stacy said. “When I got out, I had to sit on the ground for a little bit, because I was really dizzy and just couldn’t walk at that moment, very shaken up about what just happened.”

Joseph called 911, and State Police responded but were not able to locate the suspect or the suspect’s vehicle.

“He shut his headlights off,” Joseph said. “So once we spun around… I looked to see if I could see the truck, and all his tail lights, everything were off. [I] couldn’t read the license plate or anything like that.”

The Schweitzers were only able to tell police the vehicle appeared to be a dark-colored pick-up truck.

State Police tell Boston 25 News investigating the case is difficult without a more specific description of the truck.

The couple asks anyone who saw anything similar in the area to call police.

"If that car flipped, I don’t know where we’d be today,” Stacy said. “Be careful. Watch out. There’s crazy people on the road.”