Greater Sudbury Police responded to an unusual call for help downtown today.
At around 11 a.m. Sudbury Police tweeted to ask the public to avoid engaging with "two individuals fighting on the street after a possible collision" on Cedar Street.
Eight minutes after their initial tweet, police tweeted again to say there were "Reports of additional individuals getting involved in the altercation."
What one might have assumed to be road rage between two motorists at the scene of an accident was anything but — at least according to a witness at the scene. The hullabaloo was limited to two people (aside from those trying to break them up) and one bystander said as she understood it, the men who were fighting are in fact father and son.
A witness told Sudbury.com a father and his adult son became embroiled in a physical fight in the cab of a truck while driving along Cedar Street. The fight resulted in the father, who was allegedly driving, to crash into a parked car. The brawl then spilled out into the street where bystanders tried to separate the two men.
Paula Hunter described the unusual (and dangerous) scene to Sudbury.com after giving a statement to police.
"They started punching and kicking each other while traffic was driving by. The truck went into neutral, drove into traffic and it just kind of escalated from there," Hunter said.
"They stopped the truck, got out into traffic fist-fighting, blocking off traffic, the son kicked the dad in the face." Hunter said a small dog came out of the truck along with the two men. "I grabbed the dog so it wouldn't get hit by a car. (It's) a little puppy. Well, he's not technically a puppy, he's a shihtzu-ish. He had him on a leash and ... (the man) was punching at the dog, too."
Hunter said she grabbed the leash and waited by the side until police arrived. In the meantime, many people were trying to break up the fight.
"Lots of people tried, including myself, it just didn't work so we just kind of backed off, waited for the police. Me, personally, I was yelling. Men were trying to separate everybody."
GSPS did not confirm whether the two males fighting in the street were of any relation to one another, only that they were travelling in the same vehicle and are aged 60 and 38. A statement from police confirmed, as well, that while the fight was occurring the truck struck an unoccupied parked car.
Police advise members of the public not to involve themselves in situations like the one that occurred downtown today. For their own safety, police say to phone 911.
The 60-year-old driver of the vehicle has been charged with careless driving in relation to the collision that occurred as a result of the altercation. The two men refused to press charges against each other. No other injuries have been reported.
