Suspect in viral road rage video tells her story
SACRAMENTO — A woman accused of harassing two women driving on Interstate 80 in an alleged road rage incident — recorded on a cellphone — said she was trying to make a citizen's arrest for reckless driving.
Diedre Orozco, 50, of Santa Clara, was booked into Placer County Jail Saturday for road rage-related charges and has been there for the past six days.
Vanessa Gladieux said she and a friend were driving on I-80 near Dutch Flat when Orozco tried to push them off the road. Orozco then got out of her truck and approached Gladieux's car. Gladieux's friend recorded the incident on her cellphone.
The video of the incident went viral and made national news. From jail, Orozco told KXTV-TV Friday afternoon that she had no idea millions of people around the world had viewed the cellphone video of her truck hitting Gladieux's small car and forcing it off the highway.
Orozco claims that Gladieux was the one driving erratically because she was texting while driving and nearly hit several cars on the interstate in Placer County. Orozco said she tried to pull Gladieux over to make a citizen's arrest.
In the video recorded by Gladieux's friend, Orozco is seen flashing an ID; Orozco said she was showing the women her bail bondsman card as she tried to arrest them.
Orozco said much of her memory from that afternoon is a blur. She said she was upset that day, still stinging from spending the previous night in the Placer County Jail for a separate hit-and-run incident. Orozco also said she was in pain because she hadn't taken her chronic pain medication.
Gladieux and her friend did not return calls made Friday to comment on Orozco's claims.