Man jailed after pointing gun at fellow motorist
BOISE – A 45-year-old Boise man is in jail on felony aggravated assault charges, after he allegedly pointed a loaded gun at another driver in a “road rage” incident during Friday’s morning commute on the freeway here.
Idaho State Police say such incidents are rare in Idaho, but they’re hoping an effort that their agency and other law enforcement departments launched in October to crack down on aggressive driving will help prevent repeats.
“You don’t have to have a gun pointed at you – your car is as much a weapon as a gun,” said ISP spokesman Rick Ohnsman. “Bad things happen.”
He added, “We have all manner of people who exhibit various manners of aggression on the freeway … simple speeding or weaving in and out of traffic and so forth. Fortunately, not very often do people point guns at one another.”
That was key to the serious charge the driver is facing. Felony aggravated assault carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. “You don’t have to shoot somebody – you just have to threaten them with the weapon to face that charge,” Ohnsman said.
Boise was stunned last May when road-rage led to the deaths of a young couple and their infant daughter, after two aggressive drivers raced by at high speed just as the family was turning onto state Highway 55. The first driver swerved, but the second crashed into the family’s Subaru, killing all three family members.
In August, a young man was shot and injured in an altercation between two groups of teenage Boise drivers in West Boise.
Friday’s incident involved two men who were driving their pickups along the freeway during the peak hours of the morning commute.
Michael Dean Johansen told police another driver tried to run his ‘98 Dodge pickup off the road on I-84 about 7:30 a.m. Friday. He allegedly rolled down his window and pointed a gun at the other driver, James K. Hayes, also 45, of Nampa.
“Apparently some interaction had occurred between these two individuals,” Ohnsman said.
Hayes did the right thing, said ISP Capt. Steve Richardson, who investigated the incident. Hayes immediately backed off and called police on his cell phone. They stopped Johansen at a Meridian exit, about 10 miles down the road, and he admitted pointing the gun. Police recovered a loaded .22-caliber revolver.
Richardson said Hayes stayed on the phone with dispatchers, which made finding Johansen in heavy traffic much easier for police.
Idaho State Police don’t tally road-rage incidents. “We’ve never really established a measuring stick to keep track of these,” Ohnsman said. “Maybe we haven’t because there aren’t that many of them.”
The anti-aggressive driving campaign comes after aggressive driving was a factor in more than half the collisions in the state in 2004.
In a single week in October, law enforcement agencies along a stretch of freeway from the Oregon state line to Boise issued 738 citations and 362 warnings, most of those for speeding, with others for unsafe lane changes, following too close and the like. During the weeklong crackdown, the area experienced a dramatic drop in crashes.
Speeding, weaving through traffic and tailgating endanger everyone on the road, police say. “Aggressive driving is not only unsafe but causes frustration and stress on our roadways,” said Boise Police Chief Michael Masterson. “No one needs that.”
The state police advise drivers to allow plenty of time to reach their destination; use signals to indicate turns or lane changes; not drive when angry; leave plenty of following distance; and concentrate on driving, rather than on distractions like phone calls or passengers.
To deal with aggressive drivers, they recommend getting out of the way and allowing the aggressive driver to pass; avoiding direct eye contact; ignoring hand gestures and refusing to return them; not reacting to provocation; and never trying “to teach an aggressive driver a lesson.”
ISP advises motorists to report aggressive drivers to police, along with a description, license number, location and direction of travel, and let police deal with them.