A driver has harassed a woman and her daughter over 18km at Port Stephens after she failed to let him merge in front of her, with a magistrate calling the man's act of road rage "quite a snap indeed".
Dylan Robert Stevanovic, 26, was driving a Subaru Impreza on Nelson Bay Road at about lunchtime on July 12 last year when he attempted to "undertake" a woman and her daughter in a RAV 4 travelling in the right lane, according to documents lodged with Raymond Terrace Local Court.
When the woman did not allow him to merge, Stevanovic became angry and began flashing the Subaru's headlights and sounding the horn while tailgating the RAV 4.
A statement of facts tendered to the court said he then overtook the other vehicle and throughout the next 15 minutes - spanning 18km - he repeatedly stopped the Subaru in front of the RAV 4, at one point almost causing a collision between two other vehicles and the woman's car.
Stevanovic continued sounding the horn and swerving in front of the RAV 4, and threw small "foreign objects" out his window which hit the woman's windscreen.
The woman refused to stop, as he was signalling her to, out of fear of being assaulted. And her daughter, 11, captured parts of the ordeal on video.
She took refuge at her partner's workplace. Stevanovic followed her there but left when several people at the business met the woman's vehicle in the driveway to escort her and the child inside.
Court documents said the Salt Ash man had "shown great remorse for his actions, repeatedly stating that he 'went too far' as he was simply agitated" at not being allowed to merge.
In court on Monday, Magistrate Justin Peach said Stevanovic's conduct appeared "reasonably out of character" but "certainly unacceptable".
"This seems to have been quite a snap indeed," he said.
"Unfortunately, it's far too common that people think it's appropriate when someone engages in a minor traffic slight to engage in a dangerous or reckless manner."
Stevanovic will be supervised by Community Corrections and has been banned from driving for 12 months.
