Strive to defuse dangerous road rage
What do you do when you are traveling on the Interstate, maintaining 75 miles-per-hour while passing a semitrailer, and a maniac races to within 3 feet of your rear bumper and flashes his headlights incessantly? I’ve learned that you shouldn’t inform the imbalanced individual of his IQ via a single-digit hand signal. That’s because it could be the finger that ignites the intimidator’s short fuse, and turns aggressive driving into road rage.
I’ve known this for quite some time, but sometimes a driver’s behavior is so intimidating, that it invokes a knee-jerk (or jerk-like) reaction. Such was the case for me last week, when a selfish speeder felt that I should get past a truck faster, in order to accommodate his excessive speed. What bothered me most, though, was that I was doing just that. I began my pass at about 71 mph, and the offender was well behind, but his rapid closing speed became evident as I was beside the truck, so I moved up to 75 to get out of his way sooner. There was no appreciation for my effort, but instead it was met with near NASCAR style bump drafting and high-beam headlight flashing.
My ensuing ill-advised hand signal only served to enrage this scofflaw into a frenzy of fingers and tirades, and after I made the pass, the display of a weapon. OK, the weapon was only his mouth, which he used to try to spit on my vehicle through his passenger window as he passed me — but it could have been a gun. At that point, however, my aggravation was assuaged with comic relief, because at 75 mph the spittle likely ended up in or on his vehicle rather than mine.
The moral to the story is that we should strive to defuse such situations, not exacerbate them. In my case, I had momentarily forgotten the advice of our Washington State Driver Guide. There, regarding aggressive driving encounters, it states, “Distance yourself from the situation physically and mentally. Don’t make eye contact. Body movements and gestures can provoke an angry response from another driver.” Amen — I can personally attest to that last part.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently published its definition of aggressive driving. The NHTSA describes it as occurring when, “An individual commits a combination of moving traffic offenses so as to endanger other persons or property.” The combination of speed, following distance, and aggression described above certainly qualifies. But with a non-response from me, the road rage may have been averted. In retrospect, I could have moved past the truck even faster, except I would be the one outraged if I got a ticket for 85 mph in a 70 zone.
I just wonder how many times per day an angry driver like this gets irate. I wonder, because I often encounter the same situation that he did during my highway drives. There are some differences, though, since the slow passers I encounter are usually not going the speed limit, but instead are slow moving vehicles passing even slower moving vehicles. Also I just shut off my cruise control, chock it up to unfortunate timing, and don’t become irate. Since I have so many of these encounters while driving at 72 mph, there must be even more for a guy like this doing 85. It’s got to be very tiring getting so enraged over such a common highway-driving occurrence.
Unfortunately, aggressive driving and road rage have become a common occurrence as well — so common, in fact, that the Washington State Patrol and other enforcement agencies have formed emphasis units to find and punish these offenders. It’s every driver’s responsibility to help curtail this trend.
After I described my hostile conflict to dinner guests, the stories of their own experiences with rage on the roads were plentiful and equally harrowing. I believe that discussing these happenings serves to reduce their incidence, and aids preparation in handling them when they do occur. Verbalizing them, or putting them in print also stresses their futility.
Send Your Tales of Road Rage
Please send in your experiences with aggressive driving and road rage. We will all learn something from them, such as the fact that one finger can detonate an explosion of anger.