AN angry driver stopped another motorist and then punched and kicked him over an argument about who was in the right lane.

Steven Rogers, aged 46, was jailed for eight weeks after admitting assaulting Keith Voisey, of Worcester, in a dispute on Sunday, June 29. He appeared before the city’s magistrates on Friday.

Mr Voisey was driving his wife and daughter into Worcester for a family meal but trouble started as he drove over the main bridge into Worcester. When the lights turned red at the pedestrian traffic lights in North Quay Mr Voisey was in the right-hand lane with Rogers in his red Ford Mondeo, in the lane to his left.

The lights turned green and both men pulled away with Mr Voisey moving to his left in front of the defendant’s car, causing Rogers to sound his horn. The two traded gestures in their mirrors and Rogers pulled into the lane to Mr Voisey’s right, stopping at the traffic lights for Dolday and Croft Road, by the Severn View Hotel.

Side by side and with his window down Rogers “was leaning across his wife shouting” at Mr Voisey, according to Marie Watton, prosecuting.

When the lights turned green Rogers pulled in front of Mr Voisey’s vehicle and as both cars headed for the Butts, Rogers slowed his car forcing the other vehicle to a halt.

Rogers, of Layamon Walk, Stourport, got out and tried to punch Mr Voisey through his open window but after a scuffle Rogers walked off.

When Mr Voisey then got out of his car and told Rogers he was in the wrong “Mr Rogers came back throwing punches at Mr Voisey’s face,” according to Miss Watton.

In the assault Mr Voisey fell to the floor and was kicked and left bleeding from his nose.

Mark Sheward, in mitigation, said the attack was “out of character” for “family man” Rogers.

He added a jail sentence would mean the loss of his client’s job as a truck driver and the family home.

Deputy district judge Ian Strongman called the attack “far too serious” for anything other than an immediate custodial sentence and disqualified him from the roads for nine months.