02/02/2003

Not everyone behaved like an angel during the storm.

William Horridge, a plow driver with the Department of Transportation, was on his fifth straight day of overtime when an irate driver attacked him.

Horridge asked a young man to move his car because it was blocking Newport Avenue in East Providence and the state police needed to get by.

"This guy didn't want to hear it," Horridge said. "He started pushing and shoving. He ended up on the ground. I had a dry set of clothes on -- I'd just changed clothes -- and this guy rips my clothes. Some guys came over and got me off him.

"So later we were having a little break and he came back and hit me. . . . I guess he was mad because he got knocked down. He hit me in the nose.

"I have -- had, I should say -- a habit of keeping my hands in my pockets. That was the end of that habit."

William Horridge

35 Valley St.

Cranston