Aggression Zone Ahead Wsp Cracks Down On Dangerous Drivers

You know who you are, you aggressive drivers. And the Washington State Patrol does, too.

You’re the ones speeding, tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic, flashing your lights but not your blinker, honking your horn, cutting people off and occasionally flipping them off for good measure.

That’s all in a day’s commute for the aggressive driver.

The State Patrol cited 125 motorists for aggressive driving violations from July through September of this year. That’s an increase of 98 percent over the second quarter of 1999, WSP said.

Citations are on the rise because a lot more people are driving aggressively, and the State Patrol is focusing on catching them, WSP Lt. Charlie Schreck said.

If a driver does anything that endangers another person or property, it’s cause for a negligent driving citation, he said.

Aggressive driving happens every day, Schreck said. Road rage does not. Road rage involves an actual assault, whereas aggressive drivers stay in their cars.

Aggressive driving does occasionally lead to road rage, Schreck said.

Of the 125 citations issued this summer, 72 were given in Spokane County. Twenty-seven of them were on Interstate 90. Forty-five tickets were issued on other state routes, county and city streets. Fifty-three other citations were issued in six other Eastern Washington counties, eight of which were on I-90, according to the WSP.

Because I-90 is the scene of much construction and therefore congestion, it’s where people tend to lose the steely grip on their emotions. This is because typically they are late, and the traffic is making them later, Schreck said.

“They’re trying to make up time,” he said.

Then if the late driver is pulled over for aggressive driving, he or she is made even later.

“And with a ticket on top of it, they get frustrated,” he said.

Schreck’s job does not involve patrol, but he commutes downtown from the Valley every day. He says he can’t make it to work without pulling someone over for aggressive driving.

Sgt. Lee Boling of the WSP said the typical aggressive driver is apologetic when pulled over.

“They realize they let their emotions dictate their driving. They get stopped and they come back to reality,” he said.

The minority of aggressive drivers are still really worked up when they get pulled over, and they let troopers know it.

“A few are real emotional. They’re late for something and we’ve compounded it,” Boling said.

Aggressive incidents often happen when cars are traveling in a tight pack and drivers start to feel boxed in, he said.

Aggressive drivers then pull out all the stops to get free of the pack and speed ahead.

Schreck points out that a speeding ticket is expensive in itself, but when you add on fines for aggressive driving violations, usually around $71, the costs add up quickly.

As easy as aggressive drivers are to identify on the road, there’s not much of a common thread once they are out of their vehicles. You could work with an aggressive driver and never know it unless one day you happened to get in his or her way on Division.

Boling has ticketed young, middle-aged and older drivers. Men, women and teenagers. No group has a lock on aggressiveness, he said.

And you can’t count on car color as being an indicator either, Boling said. And that’s not just because his wife drives a red car.

If you are on the road and encounter an aggressive driver, never try to take the law into your own hands, Schreck said. If you do, you risk escalating the incident into road rage, he said.

The way to handle it is to get out of the driver’s way, take down the license plate number and call the State Patrol, Schreck said.

Drivers need to be more courteous and give themselves more time to get places, Schreck said.

And he said they need to remember the big picture: All that speeding, weaving, dodging, and shaking of fists is likely to shave a total of about one minute off your commute.

TEST YOURSELF What kind of driver are you? Say you’re driving on I-90 and someone in an SUV is tailgating you. What is the proper action to take? A. Slow down even more. B. Pull over and let the SUV pass, then immediately pull behind it and begin tailgating to give him a taste of his own medicine. C. Make various hand gestures and angry eye contact in the rear-view mirror. D. Move over and let the SUV pass and call the State Patrol to report the driver. If you answered A, you’re a lesser reported menace, the passive-aggressive driver. If you answered B, you’re an aggressive driver, just waiting for another aggressive driver to provoke you. If you answered C, you need to keep your eyes on the road. If you answered D, you set a fine example on the proper way to deal with aggression on the roadway, according to the WSP.