A man allegedly targeted in a Christmas Day road-rage attack in Auckland’s Flat Bush has revealed the injuries he says he sustained in the incident.

Colin Leveritt told the Herald he was on his way to an afternoon Christmas celebration at his girlfriend’s house when the incident happened at 2pm.

Leveritt said he was trying to merge from a double lane into a single lane, when the Toyota involved allegedly sped up.

“I tried to merge in with the traffic and he sped up and wouldn’t let me pass so I sped up to get in front, he obviously did not like that at all,” he said.

The video shows the driver of the Toyota throwing things at Leveritt’s vehicle.

“He then drove beside me, tried to swerve and push me off the road, I couldn’t go any further to the left, he then swerved into oncoming traffic,” he said.

The altercation went on for a few hundred metres, with the Toyota, “tailgating me the whole time”, Leveritt said.

“I didn’t want to let the Toyota pass me, I really wasn’t sure what he was going to do at that point,” he said.

“Sure enough as soon as he saw a gap he pulled in front of me and slammed his brakes on so hard.”

The Toyota driver then got out of his car and walked up to Leveritt’s vehicle, before punching him in the face twice, breaking his glasses and hitting his eye socket.

Colin Leveritt was punched in the face twice in a Christmas Day road rage altercation in Auckland's Flat Bush. Photo / Supplied

“I wound my window down so I could hear what he was going to say, in hindsight, I probably should have left it up,” he said.

“When he punched me the force of it made me slump in my seat and my foot came off the brake, that’s when my car lurched into his, so he came back and punched me again.”

Colin Leveritt's glasses were snapped after he was punched twice during a road rage incident in Auckland's Flat Bush, December 25. Photo / Supplied

Leveritt said it felt like it “all happened so fast”. The force of the punch broke his glasses and caused him to fall into the passenger seat.

“I grabbed my phone to get a photo of the man and his number plate for police and he came back again and snatched it off me...” he said.

The man then allegedly returned to Leveritt’s vehicle and threw his phone at his head.

“Since then I’ve had a massive headache and a swollen eye socket,” he said.

The driver of a Toyota allegedlly involved in a road rage incident in Flat Bush, south Auckland, December 25. Photo / Supplied

Leveritt said if it weren’t for Natalie’s footage, he would not have seen what happened properly.

“I’m so grateful Natalie saw this and she had a dash cam because I had no proper idea what was going on behind me,” he said.

Natalie, who took the video, was travelling with her husband and their 4-year-old child when she captured the moment.

The family were on their way home when a vehicle overtook them, as well as the car in front, at a merging point on the road.

“It was pretty fast, so it felt dangerous and that’s why we slowed down to let him go on,” Natalie said.

She said the driver who had been overtaken became enraged.

“He was throwing things at the car in front that overtook him. He was throwing a lot of bottles and cups.”

Dramatic dashcam footage has captured a scary Christmas Day road-rage incident in Flat Bush. Photo / Still from supplied video

Video footage also shows the angry driver unsuccessfully trying to overtake the car and narrowly missing an oncoming vehicle.

“Initially when he threw a takeaway cup out, like a fast food takeaway cup, we thought, ‘Okay, something’s starting up’,” Natalie said.

“But we didn’t know how severe it would be.”

When they reached Murphys Rd, the annoyed driver finally managed to overtake the car but came to an immediate stop in front of it.

He got out of his vehicle, walked towards the other car and punched the other driver in the face, Natalie said.

“We were quite scared because we didn’t know if we should interfere or not because they seemed really aggressive, from the way he punched him.

“It was quite freaky and we’ve got a child so we didn’t want to get ourselves involved.”

The man who was punched then became angry, Natalie said.

Traffic that had backed up behind the pair could then pass.

Natalie and her family returned home. They assumed one of the drivers had contacted the police because they saw him take out his phone as if to make a call.

However, a police spokesperson told the Herald they were not aware of any reports about the incident at this stage.

Natalie wanted to highlight the drivers’ behaviour because it had caused “a lot of disruption and fear” for other motorists.

Police have been informed and are looking into the incident.

Katie Oliver is a Christchurch-based Multimedia Journalist and breaking news reporter.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.