Posted on 03/12/2005 3:37:51 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
TAMPA - It has been just three days since a Tampa Democrat was arrested amid allegations he used his Nissan to go after a George W. Bush-supporting motorist and her two children.
Now comes the arrest of a Davis Islands businessman in another recent case of road rage. This time, the alleged victim is a 27-year-old woman seven months pregnant with her first child.
Police said politics weren't an issue.
But as in the case from earlier this week, the accused driver told officers he got angry because the woman in the other car made an obscene gesture.
"He said he was "infuriated' by the fact that she would flip him off," said Tampa police Detective Paul Mumford.
Robert D. Weiss, a 55-year-old West Point graduate, met with Mumford on Friday morning.
He admitted his part in the road rage incident and was booked into the county jail on one count each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless driving, Mumford said. The assault charge is a third-degree felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. Reckless driving is a misdemeanor.
Weiss, who lives with his wife in a $1.5-million home overlooking Hillsborough Bay, posted a $2,250 bail several hours after his arrest and was released. Police say the confrontation between Weiss and Sarah Daniel started at 3 p.m. March 1.
Daniel, who hangs X-rays for a medical office, was leaving Tampa General Hospital. She tried to merge into traffic as she left the Davis Islands ramp going toward Platt Street, but her stomach has grown so big, she couldn't turn back to get a clear view of oncoming traffic.
So she stopped and waited.
"I heard a horn honking," Daniel told reporters. "Someone behind me was very anxious to go."
As soon as she started moving, Weiss swerved around her and stopped his 2003 Dodge minivan in front of her Ford Bronco, she told police.
"He tried to open my door, he told me to roll my window down," Daniel said. "I pointed to my belly and said, "I'm pregnant. I'm not going to pull into traffic when you want me to.'
"I was scared to death, and I probably did (use an obscene gesture)," she said, rubbing her belly as her voice broke. "My main concern was for my baby. My husband and I tried for two years to have this baby."
Daniel said Weiss got back into his minivan, and she thought the encounter was done.
But at Channelside Drive and Franklin Street, he backed his vehicle toward her Bronco, according to police. Mumford said Weiss admitted to putting his car in reverse. Daniel reversed the Bronco to avoid a collision, she said.
"All I could think of was the air bag deploying and me being pregnant," she said. Both drivers proceeded onto Florida Avenue through downtown, Daniel hanging back to avoid another confrontation. But Weiss veered into Daniel's lane three times, forcing her to swerve to avoid a collision, Mumford said. When they got to Scott Street, Weiss turned in the opposite direction from Daniel.
She said she was so terrified, she didn't call police right away. She talked to her husband, who was away on business, and she talked to her lawyer. When she called police, an employee told her to come into the station to file a report. She went in on March 6 and filed a report - which included the other driver's tag number: ARMY 71.
Mumford traced the tag to Weiss and called him. He agreed to come into the station Friday morning.
Weiss has no criminal history, and his driving record is clean. Corporate records show that over the years, he and his wife have owned several companies operated from their Davis Islands home. Among them: Black Knight Ventures Inc., Athena Tire & Waste Oil Recovery, Academy Merchandising Inc. and Wall Street Farm Inc.
"My husband is West Point graduate," Lisa Weiss said Friday morning from their home at 86 Ladoga Ave. "He is a gentle, kind, giving person who just wouldn't harm anybody. I am dumbfounded."
Tuesday, Tampa police arrested 31-year-old Nathan Alan Winkler at his home on Cleveland Street near Hyde Park.
Police say he chased Michelle Fernandez, 35, for miles - cursing at her and pointing at her Bush-Cheney '04 bumper sticker as he held up an anti-Bush sign and tried to run her off the road.
Officers booked him into the county jail on one count of aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony punishable by as much as five years in prison. He posted $2,000 bail and was released early Wednesday.
Meanwhile, sheriff's investigators are sifting through forensic evidence and six dozen phone tips trying to figure out who shot David Neel as he drove south on Interstate 75 on his way to Plant City. The Wesley Chapel security guard died Sunday afternoon when a bullet from a large-caliber handgun pierced the driver's side door of his pickup and hit him in the chest.
With so much violence on Tampa Bay roads these past couple of weeks, Daniel said she now takes precautions when she drives. She locks all her doors, even during the day. And she keeps her cell phone in her cup holder.
Just in case.
"People," she said, "need to be much nicer."
Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
GUARDING AGAINST ROAD RAGE Police offer these tips for motorists who encounter aggressive drivers.
Don't provoke an aggressive driver.
If one is menacing you, call 911 on a cell phone.
Try to get the tag number.
If the driver follows you, don't stop until you're at a location where there are lots of people.
er, WHAT?
HUH?????
I think I smell a zot coming....
There are too many people in Florida. They need to put up a No Vacancy sign at the border. Either that, or they're going to have to put something like a gigantic plumbers' friend on I-95 to pack the rest of them in there.
Just an observation.
I'd like to commend women for their multi-tasking, without it, a lot of men would have to rearrange their days.
I wonder, should men with beer bellies be considered handicapped drivers?
Conservative forum rage?
tsk, tsk
She didn't stop on the freeway. She waited at the entrance ramp. Blame the woman in this? I think not.
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Left at the intellectual starting gate I see.
NCLB has exposed public education for the failed LIBERAL social experiment it is. It has ripped the mask off the teacher union-Democratic Party politcal unity and back scratching. It's opened parents' eyes to the angry, ignorant graduates being churned out by a failed education system and has them clamoring to get the hell out of bad schools. It has proven that more money is not the cure for bad instruction. For those reasons, it is a huge success
As long as you stay in the right lanes you should not have any trouble. Try driving slower than traffic in the left lane and you might as well post a target on your back.
I'm not going to go there, it wouldn't be prudent.
Afterall, I can only do one thing at a time. I'm a so-so poster and of little consequence at all in the big scheme of things.
So today I call GEICO and up my insurance, pickup dry cleaning, visit my parents, thumb thru the driver's manual and try to remember to obey all the rules of the road. It's all I can do.
>>she couldn't turn back to get a clear view of oncoming traffic.<<
Life would be tougher if she was driving a van that required her to use the mirrors.
Or is that what mirrors are for ? ....to see behind you
Would any time frame on her part, have justified his behavior?
The blind spot is always there. Too many drivers don't acknowledge it. About the same number as those who don't know what a turn signal is for.
I must admit I'm pretty tired of seeing Kerry bumper stickers. Every time I see one, I sneer. On the other hand, I've never been tempted to do more. I think this article just proves that most felons are Democrats.
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