RV vs. car road rage incident reported

BONNERS FERRY — Road rage escalated to the point where a driver allegedly struck another vehicle with his RV on the North Hill of Highway 95, on Sunday, Aug. 4, leading to his arrest.

“It seems like this summer — more than normal — we’ve been getting a lot of traffic complaints and this is the first one that has escalated to the point of one vehicle trying to run the other vehicle off the road, and attempted to do so by striking it,” said Bonners Ferry Police Corporal Travis Stolley.

According to the police report, a witness reported observing some sort of disagreement between the drivers of an RV, a black Toyota, and a different unidentified truck pulling a camper. The witness told Stolley that the cars appeared to be upset at each other, honking at each other and making hand gestures.

The black Toyota allegedly pulled into the left turn lane near the north end of the Kootenai River Bridge and Chinook Street. According to the report, the Toyota was completely merged into the turn lane when the RV appeared to swerve toward the car, putting the RV on two wheels before continued north in the left lane.

The black Toyota then pulled back out of the turn lane onto Highway 95 and continued north in the right hand lane. According to the police report, the witness then observed the RV run the black Toyota out of the right lane and onto the shoulder, then strike the Toyota, causing it to spin out in front of the RV.

The RV continued on down the highway without stopping and the driver of the Toyota went down to the Boundary County Sheriff’s office where he gave his report to Stolley. The driver also caught the whole incident on a camera mounted on his dashboard.

“I walked over to (the Toyota) and saw it had extensive damage along the majority of both front and back driver’s side doors and observed damage along the front and back driver side quarter panels,” wrote Stolley.

The RV was allegedly reported to have stopped around Meadow Creek Road, before continuing on down Highway 2.

Boundary County Sheriff’s Corporal Mike Valenzuela left to locate the RV, stopping him about 20 miles past the scene of the incident. The driver, Jason M. Moser from Canada, was escorted back for questioning, before being arrested and charged with felony aggravated Assault and misdemeanor, leaving the scene of an accident involving vehicle damage.

“From the police department we want people to slow down and be courteous,” said Stolley.

He stressed that with the road construction going on, patience is key. He also reminds people to move over when there is an emergency vehicle on the side of the road.

“Just slow down and get where you’re going. There is no real rush, especially if it escalates to the point when it puts so many people in danger,” said Stolley. “We’re just trying to keep the roadway safe — that’s what we’re out here trying to do.”

Moser is being held at the Boundary County Jail on a $50,000 bond. His preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 16 at 1:30 p.m.