After eight months of investigation, the motorcyclist involved in a 2017 multi-vehicle wreck on the 14 Freeway that stemmed from a road rage incident captured in a viral video was arrested Tuesday.
"I am very proud to announce that we have made an arrest of an individual we believe is responsible,"said CHP Captain Mark Garrett at a Wednesday news conference.
Andrew Flanigan, 44, of Arleta, was booked on $110,000 bail, Garrett said.
The dangerous caught-on-camera road rage incident between a motorcyclist, later identified as Flanigan, and a driver on a Southern California freeway led to a chain-reaction crash June 21, 2017.
The California Highway Patrol said Flanigan was taken into custody Tuesday, facing three felony charges, including assault with a deadly weapon, hit-and-run and reckless driving.
The crash occurred on the 14 Freeway near Newhall in Santa Clarita, sending an innocent person to the hospital, authorities said.
The crash occurred before 6 a.m. on southbound lanes. A passenger who shot the video said he started recording when a gray sedan inadvertently cut off a passing motorcyclist.
"Words went back and forth," he told NBC4 in 2017.
Flanigan was accused of zooming up to the driver's side of the sedan and kicking the side of the vehicle. The sedan veered left, pinching the bike to the center divider before it swerved and crashed into the wall, hitting and flipping a pickup truck over on its roof. Authorities said Flanigan then zoomed past the collision.
The man in the truck was sent to the hospital and is expected to recover, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Officials initially were looking for the biker and said they were investigating the crash as a road rage incident and a possible hit-and run.
"Obviously it was a road rage incident. He was kicking the vehicle. We have to get a statement, see what's going on," said CHP officer Josh Greengard in 2017.
The person who recorded the video immediately turned in the footage to the CHP.
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"The old man who had nothing to do with it was the one that got hurt," he said. "Hopefully by doing this, it can help him out."
