Reality Bug

Road Rage

Saturday, August 09 2008 | Comments (0)

Road range can vary from yelling
to violence and even death.

It's 5 p.m., traffic is bumper to bumper, the temperature is climbing toward 90 degrees and the air conditioner in your car is broken . . . then it happens - the guy in the big SUV cuts you off and hits the breaks. Then what happens? Probably not a polite smile and a wave. In fact, most hands would probably only raise one finger. This, of course, is a worst case scenario, but one that happens often.

Kari, Tory and Grant proved that angry and aggressive drivers tend to use more gas, but there are other concerns to consider, especially if you happen to be the driver of that SUV, even if your short sightedness was and accident.

Most people would forgive the 'victimized' driver for their anger. For others, the one-fingered greeting might not suffice. For those motorists a fist, bat or crowbar seem to be the solution.

There is a term given to these overly aggressive drivers - road rage. Road rage is a term used to refer to violent behavior by a driver of an automobile, which causes collisions or incidents on roadways, many times violent.

According to Wikipedia and Encyclopedia.com, the term is relatively new. The origins of the phrase can be traced back at least as far as 1984, when it appeared in an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Another example of its use in print came in 1988 in an article in the Florida's St. Petersburg Times, which reads: "A fit of 'road rage' has landed a man in jail, accused of shooting a woman passenger who's car had 'cut him off' on the highway."

Some examples police consider road rage, are:

1. Generally aggressive driving, including sudden acceleration, braking, and tailgating.
2. Cutting others off in a lane, or deliberately preventing someone from merging.
3. Sounding the vehicle's horn or flashing lights excessively.
4. Rude gestures (such as the finger).
5. Shouting verbal abuse or threats.
6. Intentionally causing a collision between vehicles.
7. Exiting the car to attempt to start a confrontation, including striking someone else's vehicle with an object.
8. Threatening to use or using a firearm or other deadly weapon.
9. Throwing projectiles from a moving vehicle with the intent of damaging other vehicles.

The punishments for these offenses vary as much as the incidents themselves. The police may not arrest someone for giving the finger, or even pull them over, but if one driver drags another from a car and beats them, jail time may be in the foreseeable future.

In some jurisdictions there may be a legal difference between road rage and aggressive driving. In the U.S. a few states have enacted aggressive driving laws - road rage cases are normally processed as assault and battery or vehicular homicide if someone is killed.

If a driver is pulled over for road rage, however, it is considered a relatively serious incident - it may be seen as an endangerment of public safety. It is not always possible to judge intent by merely observing the incident and police may only charge them with minor offenses like careless or reckless driving.

In April 2007, a Colorado driver was convicted of first-degree murder for causing the deaths of two motorists in November 2005. He will serve a mandatory sentence of two consecutive life terms.

Some therapists consider road rage
to be a mental disorder.

According to a study by AAA, there are more than 300 cases of road rage annually that have ended with serious injuries or fatalities – 1200 incidents total. The rates continued to raise yearly over the six years of the study that examined police records nationally.

As with other types of rage, road rage has also been considered as a medical condition by therapists as early as 1997. It is an official mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

According to an article published by the Associated Press in June 2006, the behaviors typically associated with road rage are the result of intermittent explosive disorder. This conclusion was drawn from surveys of some 9,200 adults in the United States between 2001 and 2003 and was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

There are many different views on whether road rage is a mental issue or not.

A 2007 study of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas concluded that the cities with the least courteous drivers, most road rage, were Miami, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. The cities with the most courteous drivers - least road rage - are Minneapolis, Nashville, St. Louis, Seattle, and Atlanta.

Whatever the conditions, whatever the incident, the best decision is to take your time and avoid the finger, if you can help it - for others safety, but most importantly your own. . . and remember, it saves gas.

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