One arrested, one summoned in road rage incidents

Angered by being cut off by another motorist Thursday, a Brewer man got out of his vehicle at a red light and struck the other motorist in the head, according to police reports.

Richard Ward, 33, of 823 North Main St. was charged with assault in the incident that took place on Oak Street in Bangor shortly before 6 p.m.

The other motorist, an 18-year-old from Winslow, told Officer Brad Johnston that he was headed toward Brewer on Oak Street and switched lanes, thinking he had plenty of room. Looking in the mirror, he saw another vehicle coming up behind him, speeding past other vehicles.

At the red light, the Winslow man heard someone yelling. He turned down his radio and noticed Ward getting out of his van and heading toward him and yelling, according to the police report. Ward approached the car window, continued to yell and punched the Winslow man on the side of the face, according to the police report.

Another motorist witnessed this and yelled for Ward to grow up and get back in his vehicle.

The Winslow man took down the van’s license plate and, after learning the van belonged to Ward, Johnston and a Brewer police officer confronted Ward at his home. Ward told police he had approached the driver who had cut him off to “just tap him in the back of the head.”

Johnston advised Ward that his action constituted an assault and summoned him.

A Hampden man, upset about the driving style of another motorist, decided to pass the other vehicle on Main Street in Bangor Wednesday night. He passed other vehicles as well, including a police cruiser, according to reports.

Officers Brian Nichols and Steve Jordan paced the brown Ford Thunderbird that passed them and determined it was traveling 50 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone. Nichols turned on the cruiser’s blue lights and the Thunderbird pulled over abruptly to the right.

The driver, Michael F. Googins, 46, of Hampden, told Nichols that he knew he shouldn’t have passed the other vehicle, but said the other motorist had been giving him a “brake job” – flashing the brake lights. And that angered him.

Nichols reported smelling alcohol coming from Googins, who admitted to drinking one beer earlier. During field-sobriety tests, however, Googins couldn’t maintain his balance and swayed, according to the police report. Googins also admitted to feeling “high” from the alcohol, Nichols said.

Nichols arrested Googins and administered an Intoxilyzer test, which registered Googins’ blood-alcohol content at 0.13 percent, or more than 11/2 times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli