A YOUNG woman was followed from Caravonica to Clifton Beach, pulled from her car and viciously assaulted in a chilling road-rage incident.
Passengers in the other car watched and laughed as Rachel Geary, 19, was punched to the face several times by an irate female stranger, she told The Cairns Post yesterday.
Ms Geary has now made a desperate plea for the public to help police find her attackers and bring them to justice.
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The matter was sparked when Ms Geary slowed to 60km/h from 80km/h as she entered a school zone on Brinsmead-Kamerunga Rd at Caravonica at 2pm last Monday. The driver of a white car then tailgated Ms Geary’s silver Honda as she turned left on to the Captain Cook Highway.
The white car then pulled alongside her and the passengers yelled profanities and made rude gestures.
"I didn’t realise they were following me until I got to the last roundabout," Ms Geary, who has lived in Cairns for three months, said. "I was so scared.
"When I got (to Clifton Beach), she ripped me out of the car and just pushed me in between my door and the car.
"I asked her, ‘What did I do wrong?’ and then she went totally psycho and started bashing me in my face.
"It was scary. She was laying into me. This went on for five minutes and there were another two people in the back seat watching and laughing."
Ms Geary said the brutal driver, described as a Caucasian woman aged in her 40s, then left the scene.
"Who follows someone for 20 minutes just because I slowed down in a 60(km/h) zone?" she said. "I don’t understand why they did that in the first place."
Ms Geary sustained bruising and swelling to her face and scratches to her chest. The ordeal has left her shaken.
It is the latest in a sad series of motoring incidents to affect the young woman. Her mother, Deborah, died in a car crash near Biloela in December 2007 when thrown from a vehicle driven by her husband, Jim. The pair were on their way to pick up Ms Geary, who was working as a jillaroo at a Gulf property.
In July 2007, her brother Stephen was cleared of charges over the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing grievous bodily harm when a jury found he had been chased by others at the time.
Anyone with any information about this incident should contact Smithfield police on 4057 1900 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
