Road rage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Road Rage (disambiguation).
Road rage is a term used to refer to criminally violent behavior by a driver of an automobile, which thus causes accidents or incidents on roadways. It can be thought of as an extreme case of aggressive driving. It is also important to note that 'road rage' is an expression of an underlying problem in the person of not being able to remain in control of themselves and emotions; it is not the automobile that brings out the aggressive nature of the person, it is in the person who, regardless of the setting, fails to control the temper and simply explodes.
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[edit] Manifestation
From the perspective of law enforcement and transportation safety officials, road rage and aggressive driving manifest themselves in actions such as:
- speeding and aggressive acceleration
- tailgating
- cutting others off
- weaving in and out of traffic
- forming a "convoy" to block access to a traffic lane
- sounding the vehicle's horn or flashing lights excessively
- rude gestures (such as the finger)
- shouting verbal abuse, including threats
- deliberately hitting another person, vehicle or object with one's own vehicle
- hitting a person or vehicle with a weapon other than a vehicle (e.g. a tire iron, golf club, or baseball bat,) in response to a [percieved] wrongdoing involving a vehicle
- threatening to use or using a firearm or other deadly weapon
- pursuing for retaliation or revenge of a real or perceived slight
- triggering or exaggerating traffic waves
More than 300 cases of road rage annually have ended with serious injuries or even fatalities -- 1200 incidents per year according to the AAA Foundation study (see References), and rising yearly throughout the six years of the study that examined police records nationally.
[edit] Road rage nursery
Most drivers have feelings of road rage because it is a cultural norm. People learn this behavior from childhood when being driven by parents and adults. Also, by the time adolescents begin to drive they have been exposed to thousands of hours of TV programs that feature drivers behaving badly or dangerously and getting away with it.[citation needed]
Legally there is a difference between "road rage" and "aggressive driving". Only a few states have enacted special aggressive driving laws. Road rage cases -- about 1200 a year -- are normally processed as assault and battery (with or without a vehicle), or "vehicular homicide" (in the event someone is killed).
[edit] Medicalization
As early as 1997, therapists in the United States were working to medicalize road rage by certifying it as an official mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. According to an article published by the Associated Press in June of 2006, the behaviors typically associated with road rage are in fact 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. The cause of intermittent explosive disorder has not been described to date.
[edit] Penalties
Road rage is a relatively serious act: it may be seen as an endangerment of public safety. It is, however, not possible to judge intent by external observation, so "road ragers" who are stopped by police may be charged only with relatively minor offences such as careless or reckless driving.
There are many different views on whether "road rage" is a mental issue or not, can it be found in pefectly ordinary people with high stress levels? Absolutely, and a the same time in anger management clients.
It is, however, likely that those causing serious injury or death during "road rage" incidents will suffer more serious penalties than those applicable to similar outcomes from simple negligence.
A few U.S. states have passed laws against aggressive driving. However, only one state, California, has turned "road rage" into a legal term of art by giving it a particular meaning.[1]
[edit] Road rage on the Web
Various websites cater to road ragers by letting them report their stories including details of the offenders. Thus there are those who believe that road rage is covertly facilitated, if not fostered, by society at large through a lack of serious police, court and general social response to its increasing levels of occurrence and severity.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- Controlling Road Rage: A Literature Review and Pilot Study Prepared for the The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety By Daniel B. Rathbone, Ph.D. Jorg C. Huckabee, MSCE June 9, 1999 http://www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=roadrage
- ROAD RAGE: CAUSES AND DANGERS OF AGGRESSIVE DRIVING (transcript of a portion of the official hearin record of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure -- 1997): http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/Trans/hpw105-34.000/hpw105-34_0f.htm
- Summary Table on Aggressive Driving Laws http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/speedlaws501/summtable_aggressive.htm
- Redshaw, Sarah (2001) Safer driving through reflective thinking http://drivers.com/article/369/
- Survey of the States Speeding Laws http://www.statehighwaysafety.org/html/publications/pdf/surveystates2005/speeding_intro.pdf http://www.vcorps.army.mil/Safety/driving/AggressiveDriving.ppt#23
- Safe Senior Citizen Driving http://www.helpguide.org/life/senior_citizen_driving.htm
- Whitlock, F.A., 1971, Death on the Road: A Study in Social Violence, London: Tavistock.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Extensive data regarding road rage and driving behavior can be found at the (U.S.) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website.
