- This isn’t just stupid. This is beyond stupid.
Road rage isn’t healthy, but we’ve all experienced it. Don’t lie — you’ve screamed obscenities at that f***er that just overtook you without using a blinker.
Even then, you probably didn’t pull out a gun and start a full-on firefight.
But that’s what two Florida men did recently. Because when a Florida man meets a Florida man, things can’t go well.
William Joseph Hale, 35, and Frank Gilliard Allison, 43, are facing charges of attempted murder after the two succumbed to insane levels of road rage. After speeding and harassing each other from behind the wheel, they pulled their handguns and opened fire on each other’s vehicles.
The good news is that the men escaped unharmed. The bad news is that the bullets struck both Hale’s and Allison’s young daughters.
Fortunately, both girls are expected to make a full recovery.
It’s a miracle only the two got hurt, though. Both vehicles had multiple occupants at the time of the incident and we could easily be looking at several corpses.
‘Something Bad Was Going to Happen’
The bizarre incident took place on October 10, a bit after 6 p.m. Hale and Allison were driving their vehicles on US 1 near Jacksonville, Florida.
Hale was driving a black Dodge Ram with five passengers inside, including his 5-year-old daughter. Allison, for his part, was behind the wheel of a gray Nissan Murano with three occupants — one being his 14-year-old daughter.
Somehow, the two men got into an argument while driving. We’re not clear on the details, but something about one of them clearly ticked the other off.
“They obviously didn’t like the way the other one was driving so they were both acting like idiots,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper told Newsweek.
Roger Harvey, another driver who happened to be on the road at the same time, witnessed the episode. In a police report, he called their antics a “cat and mouse game.”
Harvey said that as he watched the two men, he “knew something bad was going to happen.”
According to Leeper, the two drivers were continuously speeding to overtake each other and driving erratically. Whenever one would get ahead, he’d break-check the other — slamming his brakes so the following car have to brake as well.
Entertainment for the Passengers
But it wasn’t just the drivers who were raging. It seems the passengers were also fully invested in road warriors’ battle.
“At some point during the encounter, the driver of the Dodge Ram [Hale] got up alongside the Nissan and began shouting at the driver of the Nissan [Allison] to pull over. The right front passenger of the Nissan put her hand out the window and flipped the other vehicle off with her middle finger,” Leeper told Law & Crime.
Allison also joined in on the heckling, rolling down his window and shouting at Hale. In response, one of the Dodge’s passengers threw a plastic water bottle into Allison’s car.
And that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
All Guns Blazing
Allison, enraged by the audacity of Hale and his passengers, grabbed his 45-caliber Sig Sauer pistol. He took aim at the Dodge and fired off a shot.
According to Leeper, the man later told investigators he opened fire “to get out of the whole situation.” Because sure, that’s how you resolve these things.
The bullet punched through the Dodge’s door and hit Hale’s daughter in the leg. Satisfied that he’d hit the car, Allison then sped away in his Nissan.
As soon as Hale realized his daughter had been shot, he began to see red. Out for vengeance, he took off after Allison.
When he caught up to the Nissan, Allison pulled his own handgun — a 9mm Glock. Firing with his left hand out of the driver’s window, he emptied the pistol’s entire magazine at Allison’s car.
Several of the bullets struck the Nissan and one of them found flesh. A shot pierced Allison’s 14-year-old’s back, collapsing her lung.
After exchanging fire, both drivers spotted a Nassau County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) patrol vehicle. They pulled over, and the drivers jumped out and engaged in a fistfight until the deputy pulled them apart.
Hale’s and Allison’s daughters got taken to a local hospital. Hale’s 5-year-old had relatively minor injuries. Allison’s 14-year-old was in critical condition upon arrival but is expected to survive.
‘Dumb and Dumber’
Leeper wasn’t impressed with the two raging drivers. In a statement, he said Hale and Allison’s behavior made him think of the movie Dumb and Dumber.
“What is scarier than one crazy driver with a gun? Two crazy drivers with a gun.
“How stupid could two people be? To endanger their children, not only by driving recklessly, but by shooting a gun at another vehicle while engaged in a road rage incident is just insane,” Leeper said.
Hale and Allison have both been charged with felony attempted murder. According to 104.5 WOKV Radio, both have bailed out of jail.
“Thankfully, no one was killed in this incident. But it could have been very easily turned out that way … There could have been two dead kids because of two stupid grown men,” concluded Leeper.
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