Tracie Andrews, dubbed the 'road rage killer,' initially claimed a man had attacked her fiancé after forcing their car off the road. However, on December 1, 1996, on a secluded Worcestershire lane, the 27-year-old barmaid had stabbed Lee Harvey, 25, to death herself after an argument. She stabbed him 42 times and served 14 years in prison after detectives uncovered the truth, partly due to a penknife-shaped bloodstain in her boot. Now, 30 years on, six real cases of road rage that led to horror on the highway are examined.
Murder on the M25: Kenneth Noye
Kenneth Noye was jailed in 1986 for handling gold from the Brink's Mat Robbery, which saw £26 million stolen from a Heathrow trading estate. He had earlier been acquitted of murdering a police officer. In 1996, while released on licence, Noye got into a fight on an M25 slip road near Swanley, Kent, with Stephen Cameron, a passenger in a red Rascal van. Noye fatally stabbed the 21-year-old with a nine-inch knife. He was tracked down and arrested in Spain, identified by Cameron's 17-year-old fiancée Danielle Cable. At his trial in 2000, he claimed self-defence but was convicted and sentenced to life. Noye was released in 2019, aged 72.
Truck Terror: Mark Slater
HGV driver Mark Slater was convicted of murder after running over grandfather Trevor Allen's head with his 17-tonne truck. The pair had been driving along the A57 near Warrington at 8am on February 15, 2014, when both vehicles came to a standstill. Allen stood in front of Slater's DAF truck; his family believe he may have been trying to stop Slater using his phone while driving, which Slater admitted to having done. Slater then floored the truck, crushing Allen under the wheels. At trial, Slater claimed not to have seen Allen, but the jury heard of previous road rage incidents, with one motorist describing him as a 'raging bull.' He was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison.
Junction Jeopardy: Sadiq Al-Lami
On January 22, 2024, Sadiq Al-Lami was driving to meet a friend in East Didsbury, Manchester, when a black car drove up alongside him at a junction. Three men got out, confronted the 30-year-old, and stabbed him 11 times. The attackers fled, and Sadiq died in hospital. Sultan Bakr, 23, Sikander Babar, 25, and Abdul Wahab Babar, 19, tried to flee to Pakistan but were caught in Essex hiding in a lorry. In January 2025, they were convicted of murder and jailed for life. Detective Inspector Wilkinson said: 'It just seems completely ridiculous that something as relatively minor as words about somebody's manner of driving could result in you being stabbed and left to die.'
Killer Vanishes: Adam Emery
American Adam Emery was convicted of a road rage murder but vanished while on bail. On August 31, 1990, at a Rhode Island amusement park, his car was sideswiped. Emery chased down the driver he wrongly thought responsible, stabbing Jason Bass, 20, in the heart with a military knife. Despite pleading self-defence, he was convicted of second-degree murder in 1993 and faced 25 years. He fled with his wife Elena after both penned suicide notes. Their car was found abandoned on a bridge; Elena's skull was later recovered, but Adam Emery remained missing. In 2004, he was declared legally dead, but the FBI put him on their 'most wanted' list, believing he may still be at large in Florida or Italy.
Bumper Butcher: Matthew Daley
When 79-year-old Donald Lock's Toyota ran into the back of Matthew Daley's Ford on the A24 in Findon, West Sussex, in July 2015, Daley saw red. Despite a minor bump, Daley jumped out and stabbed Lock 39 times with a four-inch knife, later confessing: 'I wasn't thinking, I was just doing.' Lock, recently given the all-clear from prostate cancer, was found slumped next to his car. Daley, a paranoid schizophrenic, was convicted of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility in 2016 and ordered to serve at least ten years.
