Report: I-77 road rage incident turned violent, driver accused officers of racial bias

Police arrested a South Carolina woman on an off ramp of Interstate 77 Wednesday morning after an alleged road rage incident where witnesses accused the woman of being “extremely disorderly” and trying to coax another driver out of her car during a confrontation.

Officers say when they arrived on scene they found the victim in the road rage case locked inside her car, visibly distraught, with an aluminum bat in her hands. She was parked on the I-77 exit ramp near Dave Lyle Boulevard, a police report states.

The woman later arrested – who is from Winnsboro, S.C. – “was extremely angry and was yelling so loudly and angrily that her veins were showing and she was spitting,” according to witness statements in the police report.

The victim and the witness told police the incident started when both women were driving on I-77 north in Rock Hill. A man told officers he saw the suspect attempt to run the other driver off the road several times with her pickup truck.

The woman “showed road rage like he had never seen before,” the witness told officers.

Rock Hill Police then charged Joellyn Hartman with reckless driving and public disorderly conduct, offering violence, law enforcement records show. Her car was towed from the scene and she was taken to Rock Hill city jail.

Hartman is accused of honking her horn and speeding up to cut off the other driver and then braking “abruptly” while on I-77, according to the police report. Once the two drivers exited the interstate, police allege Hartman began yelling at the other woman to get out of her car and repeatedly slammed her fists on the woman’s car hood.

Officers wrote in their report that during their investigation, Hartman accused authorities of racial bias, saying “You are going to take (the other driver’s) side because she is black and not mine because I am white.”

No one was injured during the incident, according to police.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Report: I-77 road rage incident turned violent, driver accused officers of racial bias."