Driver ticketed after road rage incident involving high school student

Columbus Police are forwarding information about a road rage incident involving a high school student to the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s office after a North Vernon man was cited for aggressive driving and reckless driving.

Police were sent to State Street and Marr Road at about 9:35 a.m. Thursday about a car accident. There, they spoke with an 18-year-old Columbus East High School student who said the driver of a Ford Taurus had been driving aggressively, said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman.

The driver of that vehicle, Jerry Wynn Jr., 52, North Vernon, was accused of slamming on his brakes several times on State Road 7 in an attempt to cause the student’s vehicle to hit the back of Wynn’s vehicle, Harris said.

The student also told police that when they approached State and Marr, Wynn made a wide turn and intentionally hit her vehicle, a 2004 Mitsubishi passenger car, causing his 2001 Taurus to flip over, Harris said.

The student said she believed the other driver was upset because she honked at him when he passed her in a turn lane and nearly caused an accident near State Road 7 and U.S. 31, Harris said.

Wynn told police he braked hard to discourage the vehicle behind him from following too close, Harris said. Wynn also told officers he believed something was stuck under his brake pedal which caused him to crash into the student’s vehicle, Harris said.

Wynn was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries and released.

For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.