A man charged with attempted murder over allegedly using a box cutter blade to go on a stabbing rampage after a car crash, leaving six people injured, has been identified.
Antony Benson, 58, is accused of slashing his partner with the blade and then allegedly turning on people who rushed to her rescue in horrific scenes that played out on the Princes Highway at Engadine, in Sydney's south, on Sunday.
Benson is being held under police guard at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney but his matter was briefly heard in the Sutherland Local Court on Monday afternoon.
He made no application for bail and was remanded in custody.
Police have charged Benson with eight offences, including causing grievous bodily harm with intent to commit a domestic violence-related murder.
Other charges include wounding a person with intent to resist arrest, reckless wounding, dangerous driving occasioning harm, assault and affray.
Benson had been driving when he is alleged to have reacted violently when his passenger changed the car radio station and crashed into a blue sedan.
Cronulla NRL club chair Steve Mace, who saw the incident unfold, lauded a fellow passer-by who intervened and put himself between the woman and the allegedly knife-wielding driver despite suffering a serious stab wound.
"Getting her in and out of that car to dodge the stab wounds was unbelievable," Mr Mace told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday.
Video from witnesses shows a man holding the passenger door shut as another man, with blood across his white shirt, moves about the rear of the car, shouting.
"The first time you were dodging swings, like deadset swings, and all he was carrying on was about a radio station getting changed," Mr Mace said.
"Then it was 'you're all gone anyway because you've all got the jab'.'"
The woman reportedly needed to be calmed after she saw her partner run up the street when police arrived.
"All she was worried about was him and what the police were doing to him," Mr Mace said.
The woman and her helper remain in hospital, but both improved overnight to a stable condition.
The driver was known to police but not for domestic-violence matters involving the woman, police allege.
A police officer was also seriously injured while arresting Benson, while two people were injured in the crash.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb spoke with the officer and said he was "on the mend", having had scans and further testing on Monday morning.
“Very courageous ... I know we're trained for that, but regardless, to put yourself in that situation ... he deserves all the accolades,” she said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the incident highlighted the continued increase of domestic violence incidents in the state.
But he praised the "courage and dedication shown by the police officer, along with those who got involved to try and prevent further harm".
"It's a reminder to everybody who's not a police officer - including me - of how difficult and dangerous the job is of being a police officer in this day and age," he said.
"It's never easy, every shift is different, you've got no idea what you'll confront when you put your police uniform on and go to work that day and yet, people do it day after day."
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