Manitoba

Coffee thrown at driver in Winnipeg road rage incident

A simple drive home from the airport on Sunday turned into a terrifying incident of road rage, says Winnipeg father Jakob Funk.

Jakob Funk and his family were driving home from the airport on Sunday evening

Winnipeg road rage caught on camera

9 years ago
Duration 0:23
Jakob Funk and his family were driving home from the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport on Sunday when the road rage took place. Funk recorded the incident on his cellphone.

A road rage incident caught on video has Jakob Funk and his family shaken.

While driving home from the airport on Sunday with his partner and children in his vehicle, Funk said his truck hit a puddle, splashing a nearby red pickup truck.

In an effort to apologize to the driver, Funk said he slowed down but unexpectedly the red pickup truck driver responded by veering into Funk's truck, clipping one of his mirrors.

The pickup driver then began to squeeze Funk's vehicle into the curb lane along Notre Dame Avenue, he said.

"I was basically trying everything I could do to avoid collision," said Funk.

"I was already resolved in my mind that if I had to ram their vehicle to get out of a tight spot I was willing to do that. My youngest daughter was in the backseat crying and they were quite terrified. I had to stay calm."

Moments later, Funk pulled out his cellphone to capture what the pickup driver did next.

"That's when the hot cappuccino came through the window," he said.

The driver pulled up beside Funk's truck and threw a cup of coffee through the driver's side window. The video shows the drink splash all over Funk and his dashboard.

Funk posted video of the incident to social media Sunday night and it has been viewed more than 150,000 times since.

Funk said he is not concerned about getting fined for a distracted driving offence even through he continued driving while using his cellphone.

"The police said there would be no charges regarding using a video recording device like my cell phone [because] it was in self-defence …. somebody does need to stand up and come forward," he said.

Funk's partner called 911 and reported the incident to police.

No one was injured in the incident.

With files from Courtney Rutherford