THE victim of a road rage incident has said he was attacked after he tried to turn across a controversial new bus lane.

Mark Connolly, 39, was left with a black eye when a driver thumped him as he was parking his car outside his house in London Road, Benfleet.

Mr Connolly lives near the junction with Kents Hill Road and was turning across the new bus lane and into his driveway when the two vehicles behind him failed to spot the manouevre and were forced to brake suddenly.

Two men, aged 19 or 20, got out of one of the vehicles and one punched Mr Connolly as he sat in his car.

Shocked and dazed, he was unable to get a look at his attackers before they got back into their car and drove off.

He said: “I was surprised to see two guys standing on my drive and the next thing I knew, I’d been punched.

“My wife saw them running off, but neither of us got a good look.

“They’re just idiots.

“They were driving too close behind me because they thought I was turning left at the lights and didn’t realise I was pulling in to my driveway.”

Police conducted house-to-house inquiries following the attack, but no information has come to light.

Mr Connolly believes the design of the new bus lane on the road’s westbound carriageway, near the junction with Kents Hill Road, was partly to blame for the incident.

The two lanes merge, a few metres before the junction, forcing drivers who want to go straight ahead at the lights to pull into traffic in the bus lane.

Mr Connolly said: “People are so concerned with getting back into the left hand lane they are not looking at what other drivers are doing.

“I don’t think it’s a problem that will settle down – it’s badly designed.

“There are near misses every day. It won’t be long until something serious happens.”