LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Their faces appear clearly, and so does their car's licence plate, but the identities of the men shown beating and kicking the head of another man in a frequently viewed online video shot on a Los Angeles freeway remain elusive.

The California Highway Patrol sought help from the public Wednesday as it investigated the video that appears to show the man being beaten unconscious in a road-rage fight on a Los Angeles freeway.

The video, which has drawn more than 100,000 views on YouTube and other networks, apparently was taken at about 3:30 p.m. June 12 on a transition road to the northbound Interstate 5, just south of Seventh Street, Sgt. Denise Joslin said at a news conference.

Investigators learned of the video Tuesday and did not know who shot it, Joslin said, adding that it was unclear whether the video was real or staged.

No arrests had been made and authorities did not identify the victim in the video.

Television stations including KABC-TV and KCAL-TV said the man's name was Jerry Patterson.

"I made a simple driving mistake and cut them off unintentionally, and it just escalated from there," Patterson told KCAL. "It just spiraled out of control and I felt I didn't have any choice —either get beat up in my car or get out and fight."

He said he had little recollection of the incident.

"I remember the initial fight," he told KCAL, "I don't remember being knocked out or being kicked or any of that."

Patterson told KABC he had suffered a concussion.

"Twenty-20 hindsight — stay in the car, call authorities. Don't let your ego get in the way. It's not worth it," he said.

Officers responded to 911 reports of people fighting on the side of the roadway but when they got there, everyone had left, Joslin said.

The attackers left in a 1997 Volkswagen Jetta with the license plate 3UGW962, authorities said.

The approximately 2-minute video appears to be taken from inside a car driving on a nearly empty roadway with the Los Angeles skyline in the background. The car rolls up to where four men are standing next to two cars parked in a lane. They appear to be arguing.

A bald man in a striped sweater and a larger man in a red shirt raise their fists and square off amid repeated calls of "Let's go."

The larger man kicks at the other man, and they trade punches. A third man then jumps in and helps the bald man pull the red-shirted man to the ground. They struggle with the flailing man before he appears to be knocked unconscious. Both men then appear to kick him twice in the head before heeding calls to get into a car, which drives off.

Someone then asks the videographer: "You take the picture of that?"

The videographer replies that he "got the whole thing."

A few seconds later, the videographer appears to go to the dazed man, urges him to get up, then hauls him up by one arm.

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Online:

YouTube video: http://apne.ws/KUYUwx

News from © The Associated Press, 2012