Alleged Coronado Bridge Road Rage Driver Heads to Court

Opening statements were scheduled Wednesday in the trial of an El Cajon man accused of using his car to ram a motorcycle in a road rage incident on the Coronado Bridge, injuring the motorcyclist and his passenger.

Phillip Michael Eggers, 25, is charged with two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and child cruelty, which also is a felony. He faces a maximum of nine years and four months in prison if convicted.

At an earlier hearing, Deputy District Attorney Julie Lynn said the defendant was driving erratically on southbound Interstate 5 near the Coronado Bridge about 5:30 p.m. May 18 with his girlfriend and her 3-year-old son in the car.

Eggers almost missed the transition road for the bridge, cutting across lanes and almost hitting another car, Lynn alleged.

Words were exchanged between two people on a motorcycle and the defendant, and Eggers directly steered his BMW M3 into the motorcycle, ejecting the driver and passenger onto the pavement on the bridge, according to Lynn.

Eggers continued driving into Coronado, followed by an off-duty San Diego police officer who had witnessed the collision, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The defendant pulled to a stop on Glorietta Boulevard, where the officer confronted him and held him at gunpoint until Coronado police arrived and took him into custody.

—City News Service