Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

More Anger Expressed On Road By Drivers

Dr. Sandra B. Nichols, Director

Arkansas Department of Health

"Road Rage is something that can be controlled. For some reason, people feel that they need to retaliate when they are on the freeway. They get more mad in their cars that they would anywhere else.

Just imagine. It's 7:45 a.m. and you're on your way to work in Little Rock. The highway traffic is congested and sluggish. As the road merges with Interstate 30, you try to maneuver over to the far left lane. But suddenly, out of nowhere, a car appears just behind you, and you're forced to swerve back into the lane you were trying to leave. Your heart is pounding. The driver of the other car is angry and leaning on his horn. Now, all of a sudden, both of you are mouthing to each other, and a situation is developing. The angry driver passes, pulls in front of you and slows down. As the traffic comes to a dead stop, the angry drivers throws his door open storms back to your passenger window, and yells, "Have you got a problem with my driving?" Fearing for her life, the woman this actually happened to simply said, "No sir." The man then turned and went back to his own car, giving this true road rage story a much happier ending than many that have been reported.

Within the past few years, many people have been hurt or killed as a result of escalating "road rage". Incidents have been reported in Little Rock, Conway and other towns. "Road rage" has also lead to tragic results across the country. Last month in Washington state, the country was stunned when a bicyclist, enraged at being bumped off his bike by a car, got up, pulled out a handgun, and killed the driver who had stopped to help him, with a shot to the head.

Because similar incidents have reached frightening proportions across the country, "road rage" is becoming recognized as a public health problem. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), violent traffic incidents, defined as events in which an angry or impatient driver tries to injure or kill another driver in a traffic disput, have risen 51 percent since 1990. The AAA says, "For every aggressive driving incident serious enough to result in a police report, there are hundreds or thousands more which never get reported to authoriites."

For Arkansas, there are no statistics identifying road rage. According to Karla Duncan of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department, "Road rage incidents are not included on the reports filled out by State Police." Last year, polls taken in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia listed road rage as a bigger concern than drunk driving.

Transportation officials may say some of the things that make drivers so mad at other drivers are tailgating, not signaling, speeding, cruising in the passing lane, hand gestures, drunk drivers, talking on cellular phones and not paying attention. A highway study recently concluded that almost 70 percent of urban freeways today, as opposed to 55 percent in 1983, are clogged during rush hour. Part of the problem is that jobs have shifted from cities to suburbs. Suburb-to-suburb commutes now account for 44 percent of all metropolitan traffic.

Road rage can also be dangerous in unexpected ways. Studies by the Harvard School of Public Health indicate anger dramatically increases the risk of heart attack in people over the age of 40. This caused by the release of stress hormones and increased oxygen demand by heart muscle cells.

So, what can we do to defuse potentially hostile situations caused by road rage? "If people would do some simple things, they wouldn't have to worry about blowing up on the road,: says Gary Schroeder, Ph.D., psychologist with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The best way to deal with aggressive behavior, he advises, whether with yourself or the other driver, is to try these simple rules:

• Avoid eye contact with the other driver, don't encourage the situation.

• Don't lean on your horn.

• Don't try to "educate" the other drivers as to what he's doing wrong.

• Don't get out of the car.

• Observe the rules of the road, don't make exceptions for yourself.

• Be courterous.

• Take deep breaths, count to ten, and tell yourself a violent situation just isn't worth it.