Kirkby teen’s road rage fight with father and son motorists on A617 in rush hour

Robert Barbo made contact twice with a 16ft-trailer being towed behind a work truck, outside Sutton, on the A617, at 5.20pm on August 23.

Catherine Wilson, prosecuting, said the truck stopped, bringing traffic to a halt, and both men got out and went to the doors of Barbo's Ford Focus.

They said, "What do you think you're doing?" but he denied causing any damage even though the front end of the Focus was clearly damaged.

When Barbo, aged 19, said, "I don't have insurance - what are you going to do about it?" the father asked his son to video the encounter.

Barbo tried to drive off but swerved into the truck, injuring the son when the trailer slammed into his legs.

In an altercation between queueing traffic, he landed two punches on the father and three punches on the son, but they reported "no real pain or discomfort”.

Barbo drove away but the whole incident was captured on a dash-cam. When officers went to his home that evening, he initially said his car had been stolen but was told to drop the act as they had CCTV footage.

Barbo admitted being impatient and wanting to overtake the truck which was driving at 50mph, but said he was "frightened" because they tried to drag him out of the car. He lied about not having insurance as he didn’t want to make a claim.

Morgan Hogarth, mitigating, said Barbo, of previous good character, is the principal carer for his father.

“He doesn't accept colliding with the trailer at first," he said. “He wrongly thought he was acting in self-defence.”

He said the collision happened when one of Barbo's three passengers grabbed the wheel.

Barbo, of Banks Avenue, admitted driving without due care and attention, two counts of assault, and failing to stop after an accident, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The presiding magistrate told him it was a “ten-second period of total idiocy”.

He received a 12-month community order with six rehabilitation days and 100 hours of unpaid work. He was ordered to pay £200 compensation, a £114 surcharge and £85 costs. He was banned for six months.