Army Vet Sprayed ‘Directly in the Eyeballs’ in Road Rage Attack Caught on Video

An Army veteran with PTSD says he was pepper-sprayed at point-blank range by a woman who was enraged that he was driving too slowly — and the entire attack was caught on video.

Joe Vallely was driving a company bucket truck used to service internet infrastructure for city departments when a woman in a Nissan Altima began tailgating him and making obscene gestures. The incident took place at about 9:20 a.m. on Monday, May 11 along the waterfront in Vallejo, California, as reported by KTVU.

Vallely, a father of two, told KTVU that the road gave him no choice but to go slow. The city had installed speed tables along the street just three weeks earlier, dropping the speed limit to 15 mph in certain sections of an otherwise 30-mph zone. “There’s speed bumps on the road, so you have to drive slow anyway,” he told the outlet.

The confrontation escalated when the road widened to two lanes. Per the report, the woman sped around Vallely and cut him off. “She slammed on her brakes, she forced me to slam on my brakes. And there’s cars behind me that almost hit me. I almost hit the lady,” he said.

Cell phone video recorded by Vallely shows the woman exiting her vehicle and approaching his truck window. “You scared? You should be scared, bh” she says on camera before unleashing pepper spray at close range, per the outlet.

He immediately felt the effects. “She was like two feet away. She got me directly in the eyeballs,” Vallely told the outlet. “It felt like someone was sandblasting my eyeballs with glass.”

Vallely said he never exchanged words with the woman and tried to avoid any confrontation. “In the video, I said nothing. I wanted no confrontation. I wanted nothing to do with any interaction. I was just trying to avoid the situation at all costs,” he said.

Vallely managed to drive to a nearby liquor store to wash his face before receiving an eye flush at a hospital.

Vallejo police told the station they believe they have identified the suspect and plan to forward the case to the Solano County District Attorney’s Office for review. No arrest has been announced.