CHICAGO -- What started with Jeff Goza accidentally cutting off another driver in rush hour traffic, ended in a bizarre case of road rage that saw a car completely totaled and its bloodied driver ready to fight.

The incident occurred just after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on Delany Road in Gurnee. Goza, 37, of Waukegan, was driving his pest control truck from westbound Grove Avenue, to southbound Delany Road, when he cut off the driver of a 2000 Volvo C70, police said.

The driver of the Volvo, Steven Stankovitch, 37, of Waukegan, then began aggressively following Goza for half a mile along Delany Road before, police said, he decided to return the favor.

Stankovitch attempted to pass Goza and cut him off just south of Sunset Avenue, said Gurnee police officer David Ronzani. Only he wasn't too successful.

Stankovitch lost control of his Volvo and jumped the curb, before flipping his car at least four times, taking out a power line and ending up upside down in the parking lot of NOSCO Inc.

Not to be slowed down, a bloodied Stankovitch crawled out of his car and began to pick a fight with Goza.

"This was a road rage situation," Ronzani said. "He flips his car and gets out wanting to fight the other guy."

Goza said he was shocked by the situation. As soon as he saw the Volvo flip, he said he got out of his car, called police and checked on the driver. He then saw Stankovitch crawling out of a small area on the driver's side of the vehicle. After asking him if he was OK, Goza said Stankovitch asked him if he was the man who cut him off earlier. Goza said he might have been, and Stankovitch then shoved him.

"I wasn't afraid of him or anything," said Goza who is more than five inches taller and 100 pounds heavier than Stankovitch. "I wasn't going to hit him back. I was just afraid that I was going to be implicated in all of this."

The impact of the shove didn't do much to hurt Goza, but it did leave his work shirt and arms bloodied.

When police arrived, Stankovitch was still upset. Though he appeared to be OK, he was taken to Vista East Medical Center, Ronzani said.

In addition to slowing traffic Tuesday afternoon, the crash also knocked out a power line that cut off power to some of the industrial buildings along Delany Road.

Though police were still investigating the wreck, it is likely, Ronzani said, that Stankovitch will be charged with reckless driving.

And Goza, who spends much of his day on the road, escaped a little shaken and confused.

"(Road rage) happens now and then. I don't think he's the first guy to do that," Goza said. "He was mad."

Copyright 2007, Sun-Times News Group