COLORADO SPRINGS – Colorado Springs Police are crediting dashboard camera video posted to YouTube with helping them track down the two drivers involved in a road rage incident Sunday night.
The video shows an altercation between a motorcycle rider and the driver of a white Ford Mustang as they travel along North Nevada Avenue.
Near the end of the clip, the driver of the Mustang swerves into the motorcycle causing a crash. That driver, 21-year-old Brian Candelaria, is being held at the El Paso County Jail on $10,000 bond for a felony charge of Second Degree Assault. Motorcycle rider Skyler Bradley, 22, was cited for harassment.
Calzone delivery driver Joel Hartzell recorded the dash-cam video and uploaded it on YouTube.
“I thought these guys were joking around, they were riding alongside each other and I didn’t really think much of it and then the guy just knocked him off the bike,” Hartzell said.
He stopped to help the rider and that’s when he learned what the fight might have been all about.
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- Brian Candelaria, 21, was arrested on a charge of 2nd Degree Assault in connection with a suspected road rage incident Sunday night
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- Skyler Bradley, 22, faces a charge of harassment for his role in a suspected road rage incident Sunday night
“The Mustang ran the bikers girlfriend … almost ran her off the road and so he was mad about that and chased him down to I guess yell at him and punch his mirror or whatever else,” Hartzell said.
He said that girlfriend was driving the smaller white car that pulls up at the end of the video.
Hartzell delivers for DP Dough just down the street and was making a run to the Lodges Apartments that night. He said he always turns on the dash-cam while he’s on duty for his own safety.
“I see stuff happen all the time, I have all kinds of videos saved but nothing quite this serious, really.”
Police department spokesman Sgt. Joel Kern said the video helped them realize that two crimes had occurred.
“I think, obviously, it clarified the event, it clarified what happened,” Kern said. “Perhaps peoples stories were different and then obviously we have the unblinking eye of the camera there.”
He added that both drivers are lucky that Bradley wasn’t more seriously injured.
“Any time someone is trying to confront you like that, it’s best just to call the police. Don’t take matters into your own hands.”
Source: KOAA News 5
