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Philly Police Seek Suspect, Victims In Sledgehammer Road Rage Attack

PHILADELPHIA (CBSNewYork/CBS Local) - Police are searching for the suspect and victims involved in a road rage incident in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Surveillance video posted to YouTube shows a man in a red truck following a silver car into the parking lot of an office building in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Port Richmond.

The man in the truck gets out and smashes the windows of the SUV with a sledgehammer.

When the SUV attempts to leave the parking lot, the passenger of the SUV falls out. Police say the driver of the truck hits the passenger with a sledgehammer and then breaks the rear window out of the SUV.

Both vehicles then leave the area in an unknown direction.

"It's insane. It's really insane. No one is safe," said Eddie Thaxton, who works across the street and was on scene minutes after the confrontation.

Others on scene say what happened in this parking lot was out of control and should have never happened.

"Society today is spiraling out of control and these are some of the results," said George Gaynor.

Here in New York City on Wednesday, police said two men were arguing while side-by-side in traffic. Witnesses told officers they saw the SUV driver threaten to run over the motorcyclist, then the two crashed. Some said the SUV looked like it tried to flee the scene.

Last month, a man was caught on cellphone video using a bat to smash another driver's window in Ramapo.

With traffic at a snail's pace and construction everywhere, psychologist Alexandra Stratyner counsel people who rage behind the wheel.

"They displace that anger that they're marinating in at work or at home," she told CBS2's Dave Carlin.

Her advice? Begin with deep breaths.

"That's is what we call grounding," she said. "If you're on the road and experiencing this kind of rage, stop could be pull over, just pull over."

But her advice to victims of road rage is to do the opposite. If you can, keep driving while calling 911, and put as much distance as possible between yourself and the other driver.

Anyone with any information about the Philadelphia incident is asked to call police at 215-686-TIPS.

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